BHOPAL: The Bhopal Municipal Corporation on Thursday demolished an "illegal" construction allegedly carried out by Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Arif Masood at his educational institute at Khanugoan here, an official said.
The corporation and district administration demolished the construction that had come up on an area spread across 12,000 square feet without taking permission from the civic body, Municipal Building Permission Section Assistant Engineer AK Sahni told PTI.
Masood, who is facing multiple offences after he organised a protest here last week against French President Emmanuel Macron over a cartoon row in the European country, dubbed the demolition as an act of political vendetta by the BJP government.
The Bhopal Central MLA said the BJP government flattened a portion of his educational institute unlawfully.
"We will fight the BJP government's political vendetta with democratic, peaceful, legal and constitutional ways," he said in a message released on social media.
State BJP'schiefspokesman Deepak Vijayvargiya denied Masood's charge and said the Congress MLA had built the structure unlawfully.
Masood is facing a slew of charges, including promoting enmity between different groups, after the October 29 protest at Iqbal Maiden here.
He and other protesters have been booked by the police under relevant sections of the IPC, the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Act (the last two laws have been invoked in view of the COVID-19 pandemic).
The protesters violated the district administration order banning assembly of people in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, an official had said earlier.
Last weekend, Masood and 49 others were arrested by the police in one of the cases related to the protest.
They were released on bail the same day.
As many as 2,000 people, including Masood and some clerics, were charged under section 188 (disobedience of an order promulgated by a public servant) of the IPC on October 29.