A portion of a school being constructed in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district was bulldozed by the authorities on Tuesday following rumours that it was an unauthorised madrasa, The Indian Express reported.

A resident, Abdul Naeem, had invested nearly Rs 20 lakh in borrowed money and from family savings to construct the school in Dhaba village, the newspaper reported.

Naeem was building the school for students from nursery to Class 8 because families from the village and nearby Adivasi hamlets had to send their children to institutes several kilometres away. He had filed an application with the state school education department on December 30.

However, rumours had begun to spread since last week that a madrasa was being built in the area, The Indian Express reported.

“I had decided to construct the school on my private land so that my village can progress and some people can study,” Naeem told the newspaper. “Senior officials claimed that we were doing wrong things here.”

Naeem said there was no basis to claims that a madrasa was being built there. “This is a village with only three Muslim families,” he said. “How would a madrasa even function here? And the building wasn’t even complete – no classes, no students.”

On Sunday, the panchayat issued Naeem a notice ordering him to demolish the school, claiming that he did not have the permission to build the structure. The officials at the panchayat office allegedly refused to accept his response and told him to return later.

Following protests by residents, the panchayat issued a no-objection certificate for the school on Monday, NDTV reported. The sarpanch was quoted as stating that she had not received any complaints alleging that the structure was an unauthorised madrasa.

However, on Tuesday, when Naeem and some villagers had gone to meet the district collector to discuss the matter, the administration demolished the parts of the school.

Ajit Maravi, the sub-divisional magistrate, told The Indian Express that the administration had acted on a complaint from the panchayat alleging encroachment and violation of rules.

“A verification found that part of the construction fell under encroachment,” Maravi was quoted as saying. “Only the illegal portion has been removed, not the entire building.”

He alleged that all permissions had not been obtained.

Naeem disputed the allegations. “I had the panchayat NOC,” he was quoted as saying, adding that he had applied for a school approval.

NDTV quoted Naeem as saying that he was told that the structure would be demolished as the panchayat had not issued a no-objection certificate.

“I did not know [earlier] that an NOC from the panchayat was required...” he was quoted as saying. “I am ready to pay whatever fine is imposed; that is my humble request…My only request is that the building should not be demolished.”