JAJPUR: The district administration on Friday demolished the guesthouse in which village level worker (VLW) and Haridaspur panchayat extension officer Smitarani Biswal was found dead under mysterious circumstances in October last year.
The unauthorised guesthouse, owned by Rupesh Bhadra, was constructed over a Government land at Baligari village under Dharmasala tehsil. The building was built in an area of 17 decimal of which four decimal was found to be forest land and the rest Anabadi Kissam (status).
Rupesh, who was arrested on October 19 last year on charges of abetting suicide of Smitarani, is the husband of Haridaspur sarpanch Madhusmita Bhadra.
The demolition was carried out in presence of Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Mihir Prasad Mohanty, Jajpur Sub-Collector Narayan Chandra Dhal, Sub-Divisional Police Officer Chinmay Nayak, Dharmashala Tehsildar Saroj Panda and IICs of Badachana, Dharmasala, Kuakhia and Jenapur police stations. As many as three platoons of police force were deployed for the operation.
Sources said when Revenue officials led by ADM Mohanty reached Baligari with bulldozer to demolish the guesthouse at 8 am, Madhusmita and her supporters prevented the team from pulling down the building. The sarpanch alleged that the demolition notice was served on her on Thursday and she did not have enough time to vacate it. The district officials gave her time to take out all the belongings from the guesthouse.
Earlier, the State Government had asked Jajpur Collector Ranjan Das to demolish the unauthorised building. The Collector had sought clarification from Revenue officials following proposals to use the building as a public library, orphanage or old-age home.
However, the Revenue officials said there was no provision for alternative use of unauthorised constructions and asked the Collector to demolish the illegal guesthouse.Smitarani was found dead in the guesthouse on October 16. Her father had alleged that she was murdered and demanded a CBI probe into it.