Two held, four booked for razing police chowkie & selling land

Two persons were arrested and four others booked on Saturday for allegedly pulling down a non-functional police chowkie in Bhiwandi town in the district and illegally selling the land to a private person, police said.

The land, where the dilapidated police chowkie was located in Nizampura area, belonged to the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Maharashtra government, police said.

"The police chowkie was in operation till recently. But its building was in a dilapidated condition. The proposal for its renovation was pending with the government," Thane police spokesperson Sukhada Narkar said.

"Recently, the accused pulled down the structure and took away the debris worth Rs 1.50 lakh. During the probe, police came to know that the accused sold the land to somebody at Rs 9 lakh. However, when the police asked that person to produce the property purchase documents, he could not do so," she said.

Police identified the six accused and arrested two of them. The arrested duo was identified as Nayeem Sheikh (48) and Samshu Jama Mohammad Isa Ansari (48).

All the accused were booked under IPC sections 379 (theft), 447 (criminal trespass) and section 3 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, police said.

Further investigation is on.