Mumbai: Over a month ago, former MP Sambhaji Raje Chhatrapati launched a campaign demanding an “encroachment-free Vishalgad” in Maharashtra. A foot march to the fort, built on a hilltop in the Sahyadri ranges, was planned well in advance. Several organisations, mainly right-wing groups, joined Sambhaji Raje’s clarion call of “chalo Vishalgad” on July 14.
However, even before Sambhaji Raje and his supporters reached the Vishalgad fort, violence broke out in nearby villages. One of the worst-hit was Gajapur village, located around three kilometres away from the base of the fort.
No structure in Gajapur village, including its mosque, is contested to be illegal.
On July 14, a large mob, screaming ‘Jai Bhavani’, ‘Jai Shivaji’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’, entered Gajapur village and ransacked properties belonging to Muslim families.
“As the mob got closer to the village, we sensed things could go wrong. We simply left everything behind, locked our houses and fled,” says a 45-year-old Muslim woman whose house was ransacked.
When she, her husband and her teenage daughter returned home in the evening, she says, they couldn’t recognise their own house. “The anger of the mob could be seen on each wall of the house. They were equipped with axes,” the woman told The Wire.
Photo: Special arrangement.
Besides ransacking and damaging the physical structure of the house, the woman said the mob also looted a few thousand rupees and some gold jewellery that she had safely placed in food grain storage cans.
The attack went on for many hours. The unruly men, wearing saffron gamchas and wielding axes and bamboo sticks, entered the village and ransacked only those houses that belonged to the Muslim community, one of the victims told The Wire. His house too was attacked, along with a motorcycle that was parked at its entrance.
Someone from the mob had videographed the attack. The video is among over a dozen others that has been circulated widely on social media.
“The men had no scruples. Most of them didn’t even care to hide their faces. Such was the audacity with which the attackers entered the village,” he says.
His neighbour, who hadn’t managed to leave the village on time, suffered a deep gash on his head.
Among the videos of the attack, the most shocking was of a village mosque being attacked from both the inside and the outside. The video, showing four to five men climbing on the mosque and violently trying to damage its qubba (dome) has gone viral.
A viral video shows men atop the mosque, with one of them damaging it with an axe. Photo: Special arrangement.
“Over 50-60 men had entered the mosque and damaged the structure internally too,” said one of the caretakers of the mosque.
The incident, the villagers say, broke out “unprovoked”.
“We have nothing to do with the campaign against the encroachment at Vishalgad. In fact, the campaign to clear up the fort is not a recent one but many years old. The villagers here have lived peacefully all along, minding their own business. And suddenly people come here and begin to attack us,” a college-going youth said. His father is among those injured in the attack.
The protestors were all armed; they carried swords and axes, but were not apprehended by the police. In one of the videos from the village, a few policemen, evidently unequipped to handle the situation, can be seen unsuccessfully chasing the unruly mob away.
The mob allegedly also attacked a few policemen, and at least one of them suffered injuries on his shoulder following an attack with an alleged sword.
The several villagers that The Wire spoke to said that none of the attackers they saw in person or later in the many videos are from their village.
Footage of the incident shows a clamorous group of men wielding sticks and wearing protective headgear. Photo: Special arrangement.
In this mixed village, only a few houses belong to the Muslim community. Life here has always been peaceful. The victims claim that no one from Gajapur participated in the violence.
Sambhaji Raje has for long campaigned against the encroachment of forts in Maharashtra. According to informal estimates, there are over 150 structures that have cropped up at the fort.
In December 2022, when the state government had issued demolition notices under section 21 (2) of the Maharashtra Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites Remains Act, 1960, a few residents approached the Bombay high court.
In all, seven structures are now protected from demolition by a stay order of the high court. These houses and establishments belong to both the Muslim and Hindu community.
Sambhaji Raje claimed that the protest never had a communal hue and that it was being made to look as if those encroaching on the fort only belonged to the minority community.
While the Muslim community blames the ruling Mahayuti government – comprising the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP – it claims that Sambhaji Raje’s campaign had by far remained peaceful.
Sambhaji Raje, a scion of the Kolhapur royal family, is the 13th direct descendant of King Shivaji Maharaj and a great-grandson of Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur.
Since 2016, when the demand for reservation for the Maratha community (to which Sambhaji Raje belongs) intensified, he actively involved himself in party politics.
Although not a formal member of the BJP, Sambhaji Raje was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016 from the president’s quota and his term expired in 2022.
Sambhaji Raje. Photo: His X account.
Once his term ended, Sambhaji Raje floated his own social outfit, ‘Swarajya’, and indicated that he would consider contesting in the 2024 elections.
His father Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj is an elected MP of the Congress Party.
Following the incident on Sunday, Shahu Maharaj condemned the violent attackers and also blamed the state government and its administration for failing to bring law and order in the region under control.
Shahu Maharaj claimed that before the incident, he had instructed the local collector and the superintendent of police to facilitate a meeting between Sambhaji Raje and the chief minister for discussion. “However, these instructions were not heeded, leading to what he described as an administrative failure,” Shahu Maharaj said.
Many questions arise, especially against the behaviour of the police in the district – for instance, it is unclear whey the failed to deploy adequate forces in the region despite knowing well in advance of Sambhaji Raje’s campaign and decision to rally to Vishalgad.
Some have also questioned why members of Hindutva groups – who are seen in several videos armed with swords, hockey sticks and axes – were allowed to roam around while armed and why the police did not take action to stop them. There are also questions around why private individuals allowed to take the issue of encroachment in their own hands.
Following the incident, police arrested 21 persons. Sambhaji Raje too has been named in the FIR.
The videos circulating show the faces of most of the attackers and there are clearly more than a handful of them. Kolhapur additional superintendent of police Nikesh Khatmode-Patil has claimed that the police are now gathering video footage of the incident and are in the process of identifying the suspects.
In the wee hours of Tuesday (July 16), chief minister Eknath Shinde visited Vishalgad and met with the local administration, including the collector and the police. The administration has issued prohibitory orders until July 29 to keep the situation under control.