Nearly four years after the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) attached a Dalibagh property belonging to the wife of Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari under the Gangsters Act, the family regained possession of the property on Wednesday—only to find its main access route blocked by walls.
Ansari reached the property around 11am but had to wait for more than six hours before the family could enter the premises. According to the family, walls and construction material were blocking what they claimed was the original main entrance and vehicular approach to the house.
“The main gate and the route leading to the house have been blocked with a wall. We have no direct access through which we can enter the premises,” Ansari told HT.
The development came after the Allahabad high court ordered the release of the property in August this year.
The property, registered in the name of Ansari’s wife, Farhat Ansari, was attached by the LMC on October 28, 2022, under the Gangsters Act. Farhat also reached the site on Wednesday and waited while the material obstructing the entrance was cleared.
The dispute over access became the main hurdle in what was otherwise the formal restoration of possession. The family questioned how a wall had come up at the property’s original entrance and said they were unaware of when or why it had been constructed.
Additional municipal commissioner Pankaj Srivastava said that as per official orders, the LMC handed over possession of the property on Wednesday and that any further action would be dealt with by the departments concerned.
Residents of the locality, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleged that the walls had been built by the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) during the development of the adjoining Sardar Vallabhbhai housing apartments.
They claimed the LDA initially constructed a wall along one side of the approach and later another wall across the route that had earlier been used as the main vehicular passage to the Ansari property.
The development has left the family with possession of the property but, for now, without the direct access they claim was available before the adjoining housing project was developed. The family is now seeking removal of the obstruction to restore access to the house.
The allegations regarding construction of the walls could not be independently verified. When contacted by HT, LDA chief engineer Manvendra Singh said he was unaware of the matter.
