A peaceful protest by slum-dwellers at Valmiki Nagar in Bandra (E) took an ugly turn when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials came to bulldoze 636 hutments
They demonstrated against drive to clear university land, pelted stones and got beaten up
A peaceful protest by slum-dwellers at Valmiki Nagar in Bandra (E) took an ugly turn when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials came to bulldoze 636 hutments to vacate the land for Mumbai University on Wednesday.
The Bandra Kurla Complex police, reinforced by the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF), beat up the protesting slum-dwellers with lathis provoking the latter to pelt stones. The police pelted back stones at the protesters injuring many. However, no proper figure of the injured could be gathered.
This correspondent was an eye-witness to an eight-year-old child and many other
young boys being at the receiving end of the police onslaught.
The situation took a turn for the worse when bulldozers steamrolled on the hutments and police sprayed tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. Two gas cylinders exploded in the melee and some hutments caught fire.
Ajay Dilgach, an eye-witness and a local resident, claimed that the slum-dwellers hurled stones at the police when they came to Valmiki Nagar around 11.30 am. Unable to handle the situation then, they left and brought the SRPF personnel back with them.
“Five SRPF and seven police personnel were injured when the public pelted stones at them. They have been sent for medical treatment. We will conduct an inquiry into the incident and register a case against the people involved in pelting stones,” said Nisar Tamboli, DCP, Zone VIII.
The BMC went for demolition of the slum following an interim order of the Bombay High Court.
(with inputs from Manish Pathak) 
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