Tension ran high at a girls’ hostel in Bhubaneswar after its inmates were told to vacate the hostel without prior notice. As a result, as many as 35 inmates were seen sitting outside the hostel with their belongings.
This incident took place at a Saheed Nagar-based hostel where the inmates had to suffer due to a dispute between the hostel owners and proprietors of the hostel building.
According to sources, a legal battle was going on between the hostel authorities and the proprietors of the hostel building for the last 13 years. As the court verdict went in favour of the hostel building proprietors, the former reportedly brought police to vacate the hostel without issuing prior notice to the inmates. This led to an argument between police and girls residing in the hostel.
“Without issuing notice to us, we were told to vacate the hostel building. This is not fair at all,” alleged hostel inmates.
The situation came under control after hostel leaseholders made accommodation arrangements for the girls and assured them to return the money they had given for the hostel facility.
Sonirani Samal, an inmate said, “A court case was going on between hostel leaseholders and proprietor of the hostel building, which we were unaware of. Out of nowhere, police with court order rushed to the hostel when we were going to college and asked us to leave the place.”
Akhilesh Das, the proprietor of the building said, “My father had asked the hostel leaseholders to vacate the building in 2008. As they failed to do so, my father filed a case against the hostel leaseholder. After his death, I along with my brothers was looking after the case. While hearing the case, the court had asked them to pay Rs 88,000 rent and Rs 1,000 on daily basis.”
"At a time when the court case is still pending, the hostel building owners brought police to vacate the place. They even did not inform us before taking such a drastic step”, said hostel leaseholder Nabakishore Sahu.
Reported by Soumya Ranjan Sahu, OTV