A joint team of Gurugram police and the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) had to return without demolishing the house of a gangster in Dhanwapur in Sector 104 on Monday after the family produced a court stay order, officials said.
Police said the property belongs to Sunil Dahiya, alias Tota, 44, who was arrested nearly two months ago by a crime branch team and is currently lodged in Bhondsi jail. Dahiya has at least 34 cases against him pertaining to heinous crimes, including attempted murder and extortion, registered against him at various police stations in Gurugram.
The action was the part of an ongoing drive against the notorious criminals being carried out on directions of the state police headquarters under which cops collected details of Dahiya’s immovable properties and found that his three-storey house in Dhanwapur was allegedly illegally constructed on a 300-square-yard plot using proceeds of crime. Police said the property was generating a monthly rental income of at least ₹2.5 lakh.
Following this, a team led by ACP (West) Abhilaksh Joshi, along with district town planner (enforcement) RS Bhath, reached the site with an enforcement team and bulldozers on Monday afternoon to demolish the structure.
However, officials said the demolition could not be carried out, as Dahiya’s family members produced a court stay order issued seven months ago. The GMDA enforcement team and police instead sealed the property, all three floors of which were rented out to commercial firms, citing pending property tax dues.
Naresh Dahiya, Sunil’s brother, said they were served a demolition notice last year, after which he approached the court that stayed the order. “The property is not in my brother’s name but in my name. I was not served any notice over pending taxes. I will take out the details and clear them,” he told the press.
Bhath said a recent jurisdictional change within the department may have led to the oversight regarding the stay order. “Probably due to it, junior engineers might not have been able to check the court stay orders. However, we still took a major step by sealing the property over pending taxes,” he said.
ACP Joshi said the property was built using proceeds of crime. “It has come to light in a detailed investigation, after which the information was shared with the civic agencies for getting them demolished by following all the legal procedures,” he said.
Later, police and the GMDA enforcement wing demolished the illegal house of another criminal, Banarasi, in Surat Nagar Phase II in Rajendra Park. Police said Banarasi has six criminal cases, including murder, drug trafficking, and illegal arms smuggling, registered against him at four Gurugram police stations.