Uttar Pradesh: Ex-DM, cops among 26 booked over illegal demolition of house in Maharajganj

Petitioner Manoj Tibrewal Aakash, a journalist, told reporters on Tuesday that the court had ordered lodging an FIR in the case and asked the government to report back to it on the compliance of the verdict within a month.

Maharajganj (UP): The Uttar Pradesh Police has lodged an FIR against a former district magistrate of Maharajganj, besides several administrative and police personnel, over the alleged illegal demolition of a house without issuing a prior notice here in 2019, officials said on Wednesday.

The public servants, engineers and contractors have been booked for "intentionally" disobeying laws and "creating" incorrect documents with the "intention of causing harm", among other charges, according to the FIR lodged at the Kotwali police station on Monday.

The Supreme Court had, on November 6, pulled up the Uttar Pradesh government for an "illegal" demolition in 2019, while issuing directions to all states and Union territories on the procedure to be followed during road widening and removal of encroachments.

A bench of then Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had also directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 25 lakh to the petitioner, whose house was razed in 2019 for a road-widening project.

Petitioner Manoj Tibrewal Aakash, a journalist, told reporters here on Tuesday that the court had ordered lodging an FIR in the case and asked the government to report back to it on the compliance of the verdict within a month.

He said pursuant to the apex court's order, an FIR was registered at the Maharajganj police station Kotwali on December 30.

"According to an order of the government, an FIR has been registered and further investigation will be carried out by the state's CB-CID," Kotwali Sadar in-charge Inspector Satendra Rai told PTI on Wednesday.

Those booked include the then Maharajganj DM Amarnath Upadhyay, the then additional DM Kunj Bihari Agarwal, the then municipal executive officer Rajesh Jaiswal, public works department (PWD) officers Manikant Agarwal, Ashok Kannojia, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officer Digvijay Mishra, besides engineers, police inspectors, sub-inspectors and some unidentified people, according to the FIR.

They have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 147 (rioting), 166 (public servant disobeying law), 167 (false document created by public servant), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 427 (mischief causing damage), 452 (house-trespass to commit an offence), 342 (wrongful confinement), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety), 355 (assault or use of criminal force to humiliate), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security or will), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

On November 6, the Supreme Court had told the lawyer representing the Uttar Pradesh government in the matter: "You cannot come with bulldozers and demolish constructions overnight. You do not give the family the time to vacate. What about the household articles inside the house?" Further, the court had directed the state chief secretary to conduct an inquiry into the matter pertaining to a house in Maharajganj and take suitable action. The bench elaborated on the steps that a state or its instrumentality must undertake before taking action in pursuance of a road-widening project.