Nehru Bhawan, home to UP Congress, has new claimant; party gets notice

“Most of them are not alive today… but I remember everything. The auction took place in front of me, and we purchased the property. The then owners of the property had sugar mills, which had dues, following which the revenue department conducted the auction,” said Kidwai. “There is no ownership dispute… everything will be there in government records. I don’t know on what basis they have served this notice,” said Kidwai.

On July 26, Manish Agarwal, a businessman, submitted an application to the Lucknow Municipal Corporation claiming that his grandfather, Ram Swaroop Agarwal, had bought the property at an auction in 1961. He submitted a purported copy of the sale deed, and tax assessment records for 1970 and 1986 — he claimed the 1986 document showed the property was registered in the name of Ram Swaroop Agarwal and Padmavati Agarwal, C/O UP Congress Committee, Mohsina Kidwai, state president of Congress, and Jawaharlal Nehru Trust. Agarwal claimed that since the property was in his grandfather’s name, the names of his heirs should be included in the records. He also asked how the names of Congress leaders appeared in the records.

“After Manish Agarwal submitted his documents making a claim over the property, we held several discussions with Congress office-bearers. But they only gave us verbal information and did not submit any proof. So we were forced to served them a notice,” said Ashok Singh, Zonal Officer, Zone-1 of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation.

Asked about the Congress’s claim of an auction in 1979, Singh said, “We have no proof of such an auction available with us. That is why we have asked them to submit documents so that we can get it checked by the competent authority. We hope that they submit this proof within a week, which is the deadline that we have given in the notice.”

State Congress spokesperson Virendra Madan said: “We will reply to the notice… We have all the documents, and we are sure that the revenue department will also have them… The notice says that as per the present records, 6/010, Mall Avenue is listed in the name of Mohsina Kidwai.” Madan said the party may pursue legal action.

Speaking to The Indian Express earlier, Agarwal had said: “We have many old documents in our house. A couple of months ago, I found this sale deed dating back to 1961.”