Grand Omaxe: FIR against 25 residents for stopping Noida authority officials from entering premises

The Gautam Budh Nagar police has registered a case against 20-25 unnamed residents of Grand Omaxe society in Noida’s Sector 93B for stopping the Noida authority team from entering the society to remove encroachments.

Following a survey on Wednesday, the authority team had identified 132 ground floor flats that had some form of encroachment or the other and they were given 42 hours to remove these, failing which the authority would carry out a demolition drive on Friday. However, when the authority team reached the complex on Friday morning, they found that a group of residents had locked the front gates and were staging a protest inside with a view to stop them from entering the society.

“We received a complaint from the Noida authority that a few residents were trying to stop the anti-encroachment drive. Based on that, we have registered an FIR against 20-25 unidentified people, all residents of the society, for stopping government work. Further investigation is on,” said Saad Miya Khan, additional deputy commissioner of police (central Noida).

He said the complaint was filed under sections 147 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code.

The police are currently ensuring a status quo in the complex in pursuance to an Allahabad high court, which heard an emergency writ petition by 125 residents on Friday afternoon and directed that the status quo be maintained till October 20, the next date of hearing.

Meanwhile, residents said the drive by the Noida authority is in contempt of the high court order since it had verbally directed the authority to stop the drive around noon Friday, and the authority started demolishing encroachments only an hour later. Around 2pm, the court issued a written order directing a status quo. By then, the team had razed illegal constructions at 17 ground floor flats.

The Noida authority officials said a status quo will be maintained in the society till further notice. “Our teams left after we received the formal order from the high court. The next hearing is on October 20 and we will not conduct any drive until then,” said Ishtiyaq Ahmed, chief architect and town planner.

In a statement issued late Friday, the authority said the 132 flat owners on the ground floor were sent notices regarding encroachment on July 9, 2020. On September 27, these flat owners were given 48 hours to clear the encroachment on their own and the authority action started only after 70 hours from the time the announcement was made.

The issue of encroachments at the residential society came to the fore this August after a video of self styled politician and society resident Shrikant Tyagi allegedly abusing and assaulting a woman resident went viral on social media. The woman in her complaint to police claimed that she was assaulted and abused after she objected to him putting up palm trees in the common lawn in front of his flat. Tyagi was later arrested from Meerut, where he had fled to evade arrest.

Late Friday night, Tyagi’s family replanted the trees that were removed by the authority in the afternoon.

“We have replanted 13 trees and the authority is continuously trying to remove them, in contempt of the HC order,” said Annu, Tyagi’s wife, said.

But residents said even her actions were a contempt of the status quo directed by the court. They said the Tyagi family was resorting to a “show of strength” within the society. “After all these troubles, the family has replanted the trees at night. That family is neither bothered about the law nor scared of the administration,” said Swati Agarwal Singh, a resident.