DDA acts fast,pulls down Vasant Kunj restaurant eating into public land

the restaurant was built on encroached land.

“The demolition today began around 1 pm,soon after we came to know about the court’s directive,” DDA’s director (public relations) Neemo Dhar told Newsline. “We were obligated to do it,for the court had also rejected the owner’s request to stay the order for some time.”

The DDA’s move came in the wake of the verdict by Additional District Judge (ADJ) Kamini Lau,who on Saturday dismissed Khatri’s appeal seeking a declaration that the disputed property lawfully belonged to his family,and that he had not encroached on DDA land. Khatri contended that revenue records were manipulated at the DDA office to his disadvantage; his petition had also asked for restraining the civic body from carrying out any demolition on the land.

But ADJ Lau observed that the case was a classic example of the nexus between a land mafia and government officials that makes it difficult to undertake infrastructure projects like constructing roads and developing green areas,among others.

Facts ‘suppressed’

Observing that Khatri did not bring before the court several important documents related to the land and its location,the judge said he had not only “suppressed material facts” but also failed to prove that the land in question was part of the property that his father had bought in 1963. With no site plan and demarcation plan attached to the petition,Khatri had failed to connect his lawfully owned property with the land on which he ran the restaurant,the court observed.

The judge also noted that a complete location plan advocated that Khatri’s property was located at a distance from where the restaurant was. Calling Khatri’s contentions an attempt to “hoodwink the court”,ADJ Lau said,“They want to regularise illegal constructions by encroaching government land under the garb of the suit.”

Khatri’s contention that there was no violation of bylaws,for he had procured an MCD licence to run the restaurant,also failed to cut ice with the court. ADJ Lau noted that merely getting a licence would not lend the owners any rights to the eatery and its possession. The judge took a stern view of the fact that even as Khatri’s petition was pending in the High Court,large-scale constructions were carried out at the disputed site.

The court also pulled up the DDA for failing to bring before it various files relating to the case.

The copy of the order has been directed to be placed before the DDA vice-chairman and Chief Secretary of the Delhi Government for intimation and necessary action.

Owner chargesheeted in 2005

The CBI had chargesheeted Khatri along with High Court judge Shameet Mukherjee,DDA’s former vice-chairman Subhash Sharmam and middleman Dharambeer Khattar in 2005 in a scam. The investigation agency accused the trio of colluding with each other for illegal benefits.

According to the chargesheet,Khatri,a dismissed Delhi Police constable,had illegally grabbed land on a stretch of plot next to Aruna Asaf Ali Marg in Vasant Kunj. One of the properties held by him on the stretch was Sahara Restaurant.

“He made use of the services of middleman Khattar to make Mukerjee and Sharma to commit such acts of omission and commission… as would prevent the widening of Aruna Asaf Ali Marg as per the 2021 Masterplan,” the chargesheet says. It said Khatri had an “enormous stake” in stalling the road-widening project as it would have caused him huge losses by “disturbing his possession of several properties along the road,and also the business of Sahara Restaurant”.