Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) denied Thursday in the Bombay High Court that it undertook demolition of ‘illegal’ alterations at actor Kangana Ranaut’s bungalow here with ulterior motives. The civic body filed an affidavit in the court which stated this. The affidavit was filed a day after Kangana Ranaut challenged the demolition at her bungalow in Pali Hill in suburban Bandra.
“The petitioner (Ranaut) is seeking to obfuscate and cover up her flagrantly illegal acts of unlawfully making substantial additions and alterations. Those have been done contrary to the sanctioned building plan, without any permission by making baseless and wild allegations of malafide,” the BMC said.
A division bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and RI Chagla had Wednesday stayed the demolition. It noted that the action smacked of ‘malafide’ (dubious intentions).
BMC counsel Aspi Chinoy contended Thursday that Ranaut had carried out modifications in her bungalow. Those modifications were in blatant violation of the sanctioned building plan.
“All demolition work has been stopped as soon as the court directed so. But we request the court to direct the petitioner to also maintain status quo. The petitioner should not commence any other work in the said premises,” Chinoy said.
Ranaut’s lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui claimed that the BMC had damaged the property. It has led to water and electricity connections getting disrupted. The same should be restored,” he said.
The bench, however, refused to pass any order and posted the petition for further hearing September 22.
In its affidavit, the BMC said, “Even in the present petition, the petitioner has not disputed the fact that she has carried out unlawful alterations and additions. The petitioner has only made false, baseless and unwarranted allegations of harassment and malafide by the corporation,” it said.
The civic body also said that none of its officials entered the premises by threatening or roughing up the security guard or anyone else.