New Delhi: As a bulldozer tore down parts of a house linked to one of the accused behind the lynching of 26-year-old Tarun Butolia, clouds of dust hung in the narrow lane of Uttam Nagar’s JJ colony on Sunday. Near the rubble, the doors of a small neighbourhood tuition centre were open, but the desks inside were empty.Across the locality, daily life has ground to a halt since Thursday. Small schools, anganwadi centres, tuition classes and shops that once kept the cramped lanes bustling have shut down as fear and a heavy security presence force residents to stay indoors.A few houses from the demolished structure is Soni Future Kids Point, the modest tuition centre on the ground floor of a building. Around 50 to 60 children between six and 13 years used to attend classes every afternoon.“My brother runs the centre. Since the incident and because of the sizeable police presence, most parents are refusing to send their children to tuition,” said Rajeshwar (61), a local. “As it is, the lane leading to the school is narrow and dug up. Now, it has been completely blocked with barricades. Even the alternative routes the children sometimes used to take are closed.”Residents said that even an anganwadi centre operating out of a house in another lane — 10 to 15 children used to attend it regularly — has remained shut since Holi.When TOI visited the area, nearly 100 barricades had been placed haphazardly across the entry and exit points of the lanes leading to the houses of the victim and the accused. At every barricade, five to six cops and three to four RAF personnel stood guard, while officers in plain clothes were seen questioning residents about where they were going. The houses belonging to the accused and their relatives were locked.Tension hung in the air as young mothers expressed their fears, saying that a car and bike had been set on fire in the area two days ago. For many families, the restrictions have cut off their livelihoods for the past four days. Street vendors who used to set up carts near the Shani Bazaar stretch said they are now out of work. “We can’t take out our carts in the lane, let alone set them up in the market,” a vendor said. Gangaram (60), whose shop is near a pillar where faint traces of Tarun’s bloodstains are still visible, questioned the timing of the heavy security deployment. “If even one or two beat cops out of the hundreds that are here after the incident had been patrolling on Holi, when tensions can flare, his life could have been saved. What is the use of stopping us from working when there was no cop when you needed some?”In nearby open spaces and parks where children once played, various groups and organisations from Rajasthan, where Tarun’s family hails from, have been assembling for the past few days, holding meetings and raising slogans against his murder.
