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A Village Burnt Overnight: Tears, Loss and Survival in Dhamangaon Blaze

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  Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
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Mob lynches goon to death

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A mob of slum-dwellers, mostly women, from Vasantrao Naik Nagar slums near Vidarbha Hockey Association Ground, lynched notorious goon Iqbal Shaikh alias Guru with sword-sticks, stones, cricket bats, sticks and wooden posts on the footpath between Maharajbag gate and Patrakar Sahanivas entrance on Amravati Road in Sitabuldi area on Tuesday night.
The mob chased the goon, killed him on the main road, dragged his highly mutilated body several feet on to a sidewalk, damaged police vehicles badly and even set on fire one, and then charged towards the Sitabuldi Police Station a few hundred meters away, and clashed with the cops who tried to restrain the onslaught. The mob was still squatting in front of the Police Station well beyond midnight demanding arrest of the killed goon’s accomplice brother, and exhumation of a body the two goons had buried in the slum clandestinely.

Iqbal Shaikh’s brother Akram Shaikh alias Bhuru, who used to run a gambling den in the slums, managed to escape though the slum-dwellers chased him up to Maharajbag gate.
The violent mob then resorted to stone-pelting on city buses and other vehicle passing by. When staff of Sitabuldi Police reached the spot, the unruly mob smashed the windcreens and glass windows of a police vehicle. Fearing wrath, some policemen ran away.
Soon after the incident, hundreds of slum-dwellers carrying sticks and cricket bats then gheraoed Sitabuldi Police Station demanding arrest of Akram Shaikh alias Bhuru for sexually exploiting young women in the slums.
As the situation went beyond control, Additional Commissioner of Police (South Region) A D Shinde, and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone I) Kailash Kanse rushed to Sitabuldi Police Station. They summoned additional force including a platoon of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) and anti-riot vehicles. Senior Inspector Prakash Jadhav sent staff to Vasantrao Naik slums as the situation there was tense too.
Cops sent Iqbal Shaikh’s body to Government Medical College for post-mortem.

The slum-dwellers alleged that Iqbal Shaikh and Akram Shaikh had killed a man over some rivaly and buried his body in the slums. Assistant Commissioner of Police Dharmashree and Police Inspector (II) Thombre of Sitabuldi Police Station, with the assistance of the some slum-dwellers were searching for the body.
As the mob staged demonstrations near Variety Square, cops closed the gate of Sitabuldi Police Station. The slum-dwellers then squatted in front of the police station to press for the demand. Cops confiscated sticks, wooden posts and cricket bats from the women slum-dwellers.
A few slum-dwellers told ‘The Hitavada’ that Iqbal Shaikh and Akram Shaikh along with some anti-socials run a gambling den-cum-club in the slums. Criminals from other parts of the city used to visit the club. Iqbal Shaikh and Akram Shaikh often used to terrorise the poeple and sexually exploiting women, they alleged.
A senior police officer said, “We are investigating the incident from all possible angles. It is true that Iqbal Shaikh and Akram Shaikh were involved in anti-social activities.

Iqbal Shaikh has been lynched allegedly by his victims.
The situation was tense in Vasantrao Naik slums but now it is fully under control.” So far, nobody was arrested in connection with the lynching of goon, he added.
The officer informed police detained some persons in this connection and further investigations were under way.
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