Bengaluru: The couple was seen in a video glued to the wall outside their house.
Bangalore:
A couple in Bengaluru today stood in front of a bulldozer, threatening to set themselves on fire if their house was vandalized as the civic body took up its efforts to remove structures illegally blocking the city’s drainage. The campaign continued.
The BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) was vandalizing SR Layout of KR Puram in the northeastern part of the city when the team came across the couple.
When they approached the bulldozer, Sona Sen and her husband Sunil Singh shouted that they would set themselves on fire. They cling to the wall outside their house, one of them holding a bottle of petrol.
In the dramatic video, he is seen pouring petrol on himself as policemen and neighbors try to grab him and pull him up.
Appearing ready to light the matches, water was sprayed on the couple and poured on them.
Neighbors and others were seen requesting the couple not to act in haste and urged the municipal authorities to stop the demolition.
The couple accused the administration of trying to leave them homeless, claiming they had documents to prove that their house was not illegal.
But municipal officials claimed that the couple’s house is one of six houses in the area that have been partially built on a storm water drain.
Structures blocking stormwater drainage are being removed across Bengaluru after heavy rains last month flooded offices, colonies and crippled the city’s infrastructure.
Several areas of the IT city were submerged, including Mahadevapura area, Sarjapur area and Bellandur, which houses maximum offices of the tech giant.
NDTV had access to a list of builders, IT parks, hospitals who had allegedly encroached upon storm water drains in Mahadevapura area.
Congress youth president Mohammad Nalapad had demolished the wall sitting on the water drain in the compound of Nalapad International School.