On August 9, 2025, 15-year-old Saniya Ansari ended her life in Ahmedabad’s Gomtipur, leaving behind a suicide note, a grieving family, and a community grappling with the grim realities of communal discrimination. Her death has raised disturbing questions about the enforcement—and alleged misuse—of the Gujarat Disturbed Areas Act, 1991 a law originally meant to maintain communal harmony.
The ordeal began in October 2024, when Shahjahan Banu Khosro, Saniya’s mother, purchased a house in Gomtipur for Rs 15.5 lakh from Suman Sonavde, a Hindu neighbour. Payment was fully made by December, but before the formal handover, Sonavde’s husband passed away.
When the mourning period ended, instead of transferring the property, the Sonavde family allegedly refused to vacate the house. Suman’s son Dinesh Sonavde and other family members began harassing the Ansaris, citing Gujarat’s Disturbed Areas Act to threaten the nullification of the transaction.
The Wire reported that Sonavde’s son began threatening the family and said he would nullify the deal, citing the Disturbed Areas Act. What was supposed to be a legal transaction turned into a communal and legal quagmire.
Law as a weapon for communal discrimination: The Disturbed Areas Act
The Gujarat Disturbed Areas Act, originally enacted in 1986 and strengthened in 1991 and 2019, was introduced to prevent distress sales of properties in riot-prone or communally sensitive areas. It mandates prior approval from the district collector for inter-religious property transactions.
But reality shows, in practice, serves as a tool to block Muslims from moving into Hindu-majority areas, thereby reinforcing ghettoisation and communal segregation.
Kaleem Siddiqui, a social activist monitoring the case, told The Wire, “Instead of protecting vulnerable families, the law is weaponised to deny them agency. It tells Muslims: you may have the money, but you cannot choose where to live.”
Background
On August 7, the conflict turned violent. Members of the Sonavde family allegedly barged into the Ansaris’ home and attacked them. Saniya was dragged by her hair and beaten. Her brother, Mohammad Hussain, sustained head injuries, and Saniya was left badly bruised.
Despite CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts, police initially filed a case against only one person—Manav Sonavde, who was granted bail the very next day.
“Saniya killed herself waiting for someone to save us, help us,” said her sister Rifat Jahan to The Wire
Two days later, Saniya left behind a suicide note naming four individuals, stating that they took her family’s money without giving them the house and had tormented them for months.
“Mere ghar mein inki wajah se 10 mahine se koi khushi nahi, sirf rona dhona aur ladaai (Because of them, there has been no joy in my house for the last 10 months, only tears and fighting)”, Saniya wrote.
Delayed justice and police apathy
The family alleged that local police refused to file an FIR despite the suicide note and video evidence. Officers initially termed the death “accidental” and insisted on forensic verification of the note. According to The Wire, it was only after intervention by Police Commissioner G.S. Malik that a case of abetment to suicide and other charges were filed against six individuals. However, many critical facts—including the months-long harassment and physical assaults—were left out.
Advocate Satyesha Leuva, the family’s lawyer, said, “Even getting the police to register an FIR was a struggle for us. The initial FIR mentioned the suicide, but not the months of harassment or the brutal beating.”
The aftermath: Silence and protest
Since the FIR, the Sonavde family has gone missing, reportedly absconding. Meanwhile, Saniya’s case has become a rallying point for civil rights activists and Muslim families across Gujarat.
Prasad Chacko, national secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, told The Wire, “The young girl who was forced into suicide is yet another victim of the Hindutva supremacist elements that terrorised a Muslim family that engaged in a legitimate transaction of buying a house.”
Systemic discrimination and ghettoisation
For civil society organisations like the Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), Saniya’s death is not an isolated tragedy—it is a symptom of structural marginalisation.
MCC convener Mujahid Nafees stated: “The Disturbed Areas Act has become a big weapon for them. They don’t care about society or the social fabric. The incident that happened in Ahmedabad is a dark picture of this Act.” He added, “This law deepens marginalisation and ghettoisation. It tells Muslims they are not welcome in certain neighbourhoods, regardless of their rights or resources.”
Today, the Ansari family still lives across from the house they paid for but never received. In the last 10 months, they have lost Rs 15.5 lakh, their trust in the law, and their daughter. “We kept going to the police, but they said the law is not on our side. We have been feeling helpless and hopeless,” Rifat said, as reported
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