Badaun (Uttar Pradesh), Jul 8 (IANS): A part of a two-storied building belonging to former Legislator Ramsewak Singh Patel, was demolished on Tuesday for being illegally constructed on graveyard land.

Officials said only the encroached part of the building was razed.

Badaun District Magistrate, Kumar Prashant, told reporters, "In 1989, Patel had got the land of the graveyard transferred under his name illegally with the help of a local revenue official. The documents related to the transfer of the land have no authorised signatures and the map of the building was also illegally passed. An FIR was lodged against Patel and then lekhpal. The matter is under investigation."

The District Magistrate further said, "The court of the city magistrate had earlier declared the building illegal as it was built on the graveyard land. Patel filed an appeal in the court of district magistrate where he lost and later moved to the divisional commissioner's court, which also upheld the order of city magistrate's court. We had served a notice to Patel three days ago and demolished the illegal portion on Tuesday. He had illegally occupied the land measuring around 5,000 square feet."

Patel, a Bhartiya Janata Party leader now, blamed the administrative officials for demolishing the building due to "political pressure".

He said, "It was a private graveyard and the mutawalli (caretaker) of the graveyard had transferred the land to my father. I inherited it from my father. It was private land of a graveyard and not public property. The map of the building was passed. The district administration is harassing me because of political pressure. I have informed senior BJP leaders about the matter."