Justice Sandeep Kumar of the Patna High court on Monday ordered an immediate stay on demolitions of houses in Patna's Rajiv Nagar and directed the authorities not to take any coercive action against the owners.
Hearing an emergency petition filed by the affected house owners, Justice Kumar called the "demolitions by bulldozers" strong action of the authorities and summoned the district magistrate of Patna on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Patna DM Chandrashekhar Singh claimed the demolition drive was over as 95 houses constructed on the land of the state housing board have been demolished.
Meanwhile, a total of 34 people were arrested for resisting demolition. The High Court asked for their immediate release as well.
Ruling party MLA Sanjiv Kumar Chaurasiya, who visited the area after his return from BJP national executive committee at Hyderabad, alleged that the police misbehaved with women and children and regretted the high-handedness by DM himself.
"Though I am a BJP MLA, our party leader is deputy chief minister. I am helpless against the brutal use of force in my constituency," said Chaurasiya.
The Patna District administration on Sunday freed 40 acres of land demolishing 70 illegally constructed houses at Rajiv Nagar in western Patna during a demolition drive that was carried out using 20 bulldozers.
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