Mumbai: An allegedly illegal dargah on protected mangroves adjoining the sensitive Uttan jetty has raised security concerns. The concerns are being raised by security agencies in the backdrop of radical sleeper cells busted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) in the last few months. Interrogation of the terror suspects led the intel agencies to gather information about their frequent visits and stays at Sharif Hazrat Sayyed Balleshah Pir Dargah, Uttan Chowk, Mira Bhayander.

Refuting the allegations as "false and baseless", Amjad Shaikh, trustee of the dargah and ex-corporator said, “the dargah has been in existence for more than two centuries ever since the saint (Sayyed Balleshah Pir) came here and stayed at the holy place. Allegations of sheltering anti-national or anti-social elements and destroying mangroves are baseless with no evidence whatsover. The police check post is located nearby. Instead of protecting the heritage structure, which has a historic past, the dargah is being targeted only because we are minorities.”

The sufi shrine allegedly encroached over 57 hectares of mangroves at Uttan Chowk adjacent to Uttan Jetty at the confluence of Vasai Creek and Arabian Sea. It is frequented by youths from Mira Road, Bhayander, Thane, Kausa, Mumbra. Bhiwandi and Kalyan.

An investigation by the Free Press Journal into the alleged illegal construction of the dargah revealed that the Mira- Bhayander civic body had issued several notices regularly to the trustees asking them to dismantle the structure, but in vain.

Confidential documents accessed by the Free Press Journal reveal that warnings from security agencies about the encroachment on the protected mangroves next to Uttan Jetty with direct access to Vasai Creek has been ignored by successive civic and police officials since 2003.

The alleged encroachment on mangroves came up for discussion in the Maharashtra assembly in May 2009 about the destruction of mangroves, dumping of debris to construct retaining walls, laying of concrete roads and building of semi- permanent structures and boarding rooms.

The then Thane Rural police had also filed a confidential report to the Thane Collector AL Jarad about the security threats posed by the rapid expansion of the dargah since 2003 and asked the administration to take action against the encroachment.

“Mumbai is just five kms from Uttan jetty by sea and the 1993 Bombay blasts explosives landing point at Sekhadi, Ratnagiri can be similarly misused to smuggle arms and ammunition into Thane and Mumbai. Unregulated crowd at the dargah near the sensitive Uttan jetty is a major security threat,” reads the October 2011 Thane (Rural) police report.

The Mira Bhayander municipal corporation had also issued show cause notices in 2016 to the dargah trust after complaints from the Hindu Task Force's legal advisor Shush Khandelwal. He had objected to the application filed in October 2022 by the trust secretary Abdul Kadir Qureshi to regularise the shrine and enter the Trust's name in the 7/12 property extract.

Khandelwal had alleged that the Dargah trust officials had claimed that the structure spread over 10,000 sq feet was in existence since1995 but an enquiry ordered by the revenue department proved that the dargah had destroyed protected mangroves and encroached on the sensitive location adjacent to the Uttan jetty.

According to Bhayander resident and BJP Mira Bhayander election incharge advocate Ravi Vyas, a complaint was filed against the dargah Trust with the Mira Bhayander Vasai Virar (MBVV) Police Commissionerate.

The state revenue department taking cognisance of the illegal construction filed a criminal case at the Uttan Coastal Police and registered an FIR in December 2020 and asked the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board to submit a report on the hacking of mangroves and dumping of debris to encroach the protected site. “The illegal dargah is rapidly expanding to construct madrasa and boarding for travellers to the site,” alleged advocate Vyas.

Vyas has alleged similar encroachment on Mira Bhayander reserved plot at Azad Nagar to construct illegal Madrasa and notices served to demolish the unauthorised structure by Anjuman Garib Nawaz Trust. “High Court and Supreme Courts have explicitly ordered all illegal structures on government land should be demolished and encroachment should be removed. Mira Bhayander municipal corporation has failed to ensure that public properties are protected from encroachment,” Vyas added.