The Uttar Pradesh Police has filed a first information report against 26 persons, including a former district magistrate and several police officers, for illegally demolishing a journalist’s home, The Wire reported on Thursday.

This came less than two months after the Supreme Court on November 6 ordered the state government to pay Rs 25 lakh as compensation to the journalist, Manoj Tibrewal, whose home it said had been unlawfully demolished.

The journalist wrote to the court about the allegedly illegal demolition of his home in Mohalla Hamid Nagar in Maharajganj district in October 2019, The Wire reported. Subsequently, the court registered the complaint as a suo motu writ petition.

Akash told the court that the property was demolished in September 2019 for a road-widening project in the district without the authorities giving him notice.

He alleged that his home was demolished as reprisal for “a newspaper report which contained allegations of wrongdoing in relation to the construction of the road in question”. In its judgement, the court said it did not need to engage with this allegation, except to the extent that it provided the background to his grievances.

The court also said that bulldozer “justice” was unacceptable under the rule of law, and that the government must follow due processes before removing allegedly illegal encroachments.

In addition to ordering compensation, the court directed the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary to file a first information report in the matter. It ordered the state’s Crime Branch, Crime Investigation Department to look into the case.

On Monday, the police filed a first information report against Indian Administrative Services Officer Amar Nath Upadhyay, who was the district magistrate in Maharajganj when the property was demolished, and 25 others for criminal conspiracy, disobeying the law and forging documents, among other charges.

The FIR was based on a complaint submitted by Akash to the state director general of police in March 2020.

In this complaint, Tibrewal claimed that his home was demolished by officials led by Upadhyay as part of a “big conspiracy”, according to The Wire. The district magistrate adopted “an oppressive and spiteful attitude” and demolished the property with “criminal intent,” Akash added.

The journalist claimed that the action was taken days after his father, Sushil Kumar, wrote a complaint demanding an investigation into the alleged irregularities in the construction of the 21-km stretch of the National Highway 730 at a cost of Rs 185 crore, The Wire reported.

Subsequently, reports about Kumar’s complaint were published in several newspapers. In response, Upadhyay and several of his associates harboured a “grudge” against his family, the complaint said, according to The Wire.

Akash noted in the complaint that the home was purchased by his grandfather, Peetram Tibrewal, in the 1960s through a registered deed, and that his family had been living in the house for 45 years.

The complaint also added that Akash, along with his father and brother, were called to attend a meeting about the project with the district magistrate and several other officials a day before the demolition.

During the meeting, Akash said that his family was told that constructions on private land would not be demolished and that work would progress only according to the width of the road available to the Public Works Department as per the revenue map, according to The Wire.

The officials directed Akash to demolish a part of the property that was coming within the five feet radius of the plan, the complaint said. The journalist claimed that he demolished this portion overnight following the meeting.

However, the officials demolished the entire home the next day, he added in the complaint.

There are no provisions in Indian law that allow for the demolition of property as a punitive measure. Nevertheless, the practice has become commonplace mainly in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.