More than a thousand residents in Jawahar Nagar in Khar (East) resorted to an ingenious ploy to avoid the demolition of their houses.

They began chanting bhajans in front of a photograph of a resident who died two days ago. The deceased had died at VN Desaiu00a0 hospital, allegedly because of a doctor's negligence.


Residents scribbled graffiti across the walls of the society to protest the demolition

It worked. MHADA's demolition squad backtracked, for the day at least. Last morning, MHADA officials reached the spot.

But before they could start razing the houses, the mob rose into a chorus of bhajans in what seemed to be a sort of puja for the deceased. They put up a picture of the 33-year-old Ramdas Patil who died at the hospital.

"Seeing our puja, MHADA officials cancelled the demolition, But threatened that theyu00a0 would be back on Thursday," said Datta Mane, one of the residents of one of the affected buildings, Shri Ganesh Kripa Housing Society.

Residents say that owners of real estate firm Shivalik Ventures, Ramakant Jadhav and Prakash Ajgaonkar, are forcibly redeveloping an area of nearly 1.64 lakh sq m between Khar and Santacruz railway stations under the SRA scheme.

The residents have filed a writ petition in the High Court. Krishna Nair, president of Shri Baba Cooperative Housing Society, another colony in the area, said, "An RTI query has proved that the builder forged signatures in order to show the support of 70 per cent of the residents. When in fact this was not the case."

Later in the night, residents held a meeting to devise ways to stop the demolition the next day. Their confidence was bolstered by the fact that activist Medha Patkar flew in from Nagpur around 1 am to lend them her support.