Case of negligence filed over toddler's death

The postmortem report of the six-month-old baby girl, who died during a demolition drive in a west Delhi slum cluster, said that she died due to "shock as a result of chest and head injury due to blunt force impact". The report, that came out Monday, two days after the demolition on Saturday morning, also mentioned fractures in "2 to 4 ribs". The report disputes the version of the events put forward by the Railways, which maintained that the baby died two hours before the drive started.

The Delhi Police has registered a case of negligence in the infant's death even as the High Court reacted to a PIL filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken, slamming the Railways and issuing notices to the Railways authorities, police personnel and Delhi government officials directing them to prepare and organise a co-ordinated plan towards those rendered homeless.

The slum cluster in Shakur Basti, nestled between the posh east Punjabi Bagh colony, and Paschim Vihar, housing nearly 5,000, was razed on Saturday morning after the Railways, which owns the land, evicted people from their homes and bulldozed all that stood. Six month old Rukaiya, the daughter of Mohammed Kalim was found dead under a pile of her parents' belongings, which triggered a furore. By Monday, a number of politicians, and NGOs, had descended on the residents of the colony, as the latter sat out the winter cold in makeshift tents scrounging around for food and blankets.

Congress scion Rahul Gandhi made an appearance in the morning, promising to raise the issue in Parliament, blaming the Aam Aadmi Party led Delhi government for the demolition. All he earned was a scathing tweet from Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, calling him a "child" who didn't know the Railways came under the central government. Kejriwal is the only politician who isn't the object of the slum residents' ire, as they recount how he was first on scene, in the intervening night of Saturday-Sunday, and his party has been providing all relief material.

"All politicians have come and made us promises but no one will fulfill them," said a very angry Ruma Devi, even as others remembered the BJP promise of "jahan jhuggi wahaan makan". There is palpable anger in the air at the mention of politicians and promises. Before Rukaiya's death, barely any leader, they say, bothered about them.

"At least Kejriwal has given us tents and blankets," added young Mohammed Sadiq Malik. However, distribution is a problem as the residents, who are currently scattered across tents in various stages of falling apart, said that people from outside their colony have been sneaking a way the relief material. "Now they will give us material after checking our ids," said Ruma Devi.

The residents all have their ids ready; voters cards bearing the Railway colony address so as to prove they belong. "We have been here for almost 30 years, some of us are born here. Yet they have destroyed our homes six or seven time," said a weary Rajeev Sharma waving his voter id.

The residents of the colony are mostly labourers working in the nearby cement godown. Migrants from "mostly Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jhansi" as they say, they have been doing the same work for more years than they can count. Men and women offload sacks of cement from goods trains that run on the lines bordering their slum, and take them to construction plots. Every day they go the Rani Bagh chowk to be hired as daily labour. When there is no work, they stay home. "We will be here as long as the godown is, we won't move," said Mohammad Siqandar Alam. All of them say that their children don't go to school, as there is none nearby. They barely have enough water for daily needs, which they get by standing three hours in a line everyday. On Monday, their water supply was shut off.

Behind them, a bunch of children ran screaming excitedly long a bicycle with a fogging machine, spewing mosquito repellant chemicals in the dusty air. "That us first time since I've been here I've seen anyone fog this place," said Alam. "They didn't even do this in the dengue season."

Every single resident denies having received a notice of eviction before hand. "They only put up notices in the evening on 11 December. I was reading namaaz, many people were at work." Around 8 in the morning on 12, said Sahin, officials came and told them to leave their homes, the bulldozers came just before 12. "There was no time to gather any belongings. We have lost everything we had," said Lalita.

Meanwhile in the ongoing Parliament, the political slugfest over the demolition heightened as the Trinamool Congress and the Janata Dal (United) joined AAP and served notice to raise the issue in both houses. The blame game too continued as AAP charged the centre for carrying out the drive to disturb its government, even as Kejriwal met with Railways minister Suresh Prabhu later in the evening.