The Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) demolished a portion of the commercial building owned by journalist Ashok Pandey who had recently released the sting operation purportedly showing Chief Minister Harish Rawat's then Personal Secretary Mohammed Shahid seeking bribe from the liquor syndicate. While Pandey alleged that the demolition was a vindictive action ordered by the State in response to the sting operation, the MDDA officials stressed that only the non-compoundable portion of the commercial building had been demolished as per due procedure after giving the building owner all opportunities to present his stand and then demolish the portion in question himself.
MDDA officials reached the under construction building in Tagorevilla at Chakrata Road along with huge police force on Tuesday morning. While the non-compoundable portion of this building was being demolished Pandey talked to media personsat the site.
He alleged, "The building map had been approved earlier in 2005 but as the construction was not undertaken within the stipulated period, I submitted the map and other documents to the MDDA for compounding again but these were not processed since 2012. There must be 10,000 unauthorised constructions in Dehradun but the authority is selectively acting against me. While the MDDA is acting against me, Shahid is having a good time in Goa on taxpayers money. I also fear for my life as I have been told that a contract has been given out by the CM to criminals from western UP to assassinate me," he alleged, while adding that he would be meeting the Governor on this issue. Standing by the authenticity of the sting operation, he refrained from going into details on the grounds that the case is sub judice.
Meanwhile, MDDA secretary Prakash Chandra Dumka said that Pandey had bought the property from Surendra Ram and Rakesh Ram Tripathi in 2006 and then later submitted the map and documents for compounding in 2012. He said, "Inspection of the construction site revealed that the dimensions of the construction were considerable larger than the dimensions stated in the map submitted for compounding. We had issued a challan and a notice to Pandey and later on July 10 this year we issued a self-demolition order giving him a period of 15 days to demolish the non-compoundable portion of the building on his own.
We demolished this portion since the building owner did not do so himself." Refuting the allegations of selective action against Pandey, the MDDA secretary informed that in recent months, the authority had demolished illegal plotting from 1000 bigha land, sealed more than two dozen unauthorized constructions and had also compounded 2,500 buildings.