Mosque authorities, Minister locked in land dispute

A day after polling, on April 7, office-bearers of the Nazuk Rathan Dargha, mosque and burial ground under the control of the Ahle Sunnath Jamath in Konvattam were informed that Minister Nilofer Kafeel was on the dargha land with a group of people.

Muthavalli J Jaffar Basha, assistant muthavalli Muneer and others rushed to the spot. They found Nilofer Kafeel with a group of outsiders measuring the 12.61 acres vacant land and claimed that they had ancestral rights, according to Muneer.

The argument between both sides heated up resulting in the Muthavalli being assaulted by the outsiders. Seeing this, local Muslim youth retaliated and beat up some of the rivals. The Minister soon left the spot. “But, we learnt later that she had filed a complaint against us in the Vellore south police station,” said Muneer.

Muthavalli Jaffar Basha in his complaint said that the outsiders trespassed into mosque land without permission or knowledge of mosque officials and that when questioned they were attacked. He stated that following the attack he was hospitalised for a day and was discharged only on April 8, the day he gave the complaint.

Muneer said, “the land has been with the mosque for 600 years and we have records to prove it. Five years ago the same group tried to grab this land and we proved that it belonged to the mosque with the help of revenue officials. When we gave the complaint regarding the April 7 incident, police said they would not include the Minister’s name but only the names of others.”

When asked about the incident, Minister Kafeel said, “there was no trespass as the Wakf Board through its gazette notification dated January 27, 2021, took over the management of the mosque and burial ground. As for measuring the land can they show one video of this as they were videographing the incident?”

On her presence at the site, the Minister said, “One of the haqdars (right person) who is in charge in the absence of muthavalli invited me for tea and when leaving asked me also to see the mosque. The present muthavalli is illegal as the mosque and burial ground are directly under the Wakf Board. They kicked up a row fearing that they would lose what they have been getting till now.”