MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court has expressed “shock” over the 2016 midnight demolition of the historic Buddha Bhushan printing press in Dadar, observing that the “evident inaction” of the Mumbai police was “contrary to the basic principles of law”.
A division bench of Justice AS Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata directed the commissioner of police to file a personal affidavit within six weeks, along with an explanation on whether the intelligence department was functioning when a mob of around 400 gathered at the site at midnight, and whether the local police had received intelligence reports regarding the gathering of such a mob.
The court was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by Prakash Ambedkar, leader of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and grandson of Dalit leader Dr BR Ambedkar, and others concerning the 2016 “illegal demolition” of the Buddha Bhushan printing press and Babasaheb Ambedkar Bhavan in Dadar. The press was a key centre for the printing and dissemination of Dalit literature and Ambedkar’s ideas.
According to the petition, Ambedkar had purchased two plots in 1930 from his own funds. In 1945, he created a trust on the land, which housed the Buddha Bhushan printing press and Babasaheb Ambedkar Bhavan.
Due to internal disputes between the trust and its trustees, some members acted against the trust and relied on a false structural audit report to “instigate” the BMC to issue a notice claiming that the building was in dilapidated condition.
Around 2:00am on June 25, 2016, the petition states, a mob of 400-500 unknown persons came with earth movers and bulldozers to demolish the printing press. Anand Ambedkar, brother of Prakash Ambedkar, rushed to the Bhoiwada police station to lodge a complaint, but then deputy commissioner of police (DCP) N Ambika, allegedly threatened to put him behind bars and refused to send a police team to stop the demolition, the petition claimed. When Anand Ambedkar returned to the spot, the press had already been demolished, it added.
The petition claimed that machines purchased by Dr BR Ambedkar, the ‘Panchshil flag’, cupboards, office documents containing Ambedkar’s handwriting and valuable anti-manuscripts regarding integration of social rights from 1910 until 1956, were either damaged or stolen during the demolition.
The petition claims that no proper investigation was carried out for the stolen property or the demolition, prompting the petitioners to move court in April 2017. Assistant commissioner of police Ghanashyam Palange filed an affidavit on April 28, 2026, stating that the allegations were “vague and baseless” while acknowledging that although the police had been informed about the demolition, the complainants did not possess the requisite documents to enable them to stop the demolition.
During the hearing on April 30, the court expressed “shock” over the “audacity and the manner” in which the police responded to the complaints and termed the reply affidavit “deeply disturbing and thoughtless”.
It also noted that it is rare, if not unprecedented, for the BMC to carry out a demolition between 12 midnight and 7:00am. Instead of promptly proceeding to the site and halting what appears to have been an illegal demolition, there was an evident inaction on the part of the police, the court said.
The court has posted the matter for further hearing on June 15.
