Venkatswamy M approached the civil court after buildings he had constructed were demolished last year.
At the Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner's office, where two cars used to stand, now there's only one. One of the cars and a photocopying machine from the office were seized on Tuesday as part of Rs 18 lakh compensation that a court awarded to an aggrieved citizen.
Venkatswamy M had approached the civil court after buildings he had constructed on a three acre plot in Chikkallasandra village were demolished by authorities last year. The court upheld his claim and allowed Venkatswamy to collect damages for that demolition - and that compensation included the Deputy Commissioner's official property.
"We kept showing them the documents but they did not listen to us. And then they broke everything down - five shops, three houses and the surrounding compound wall. The court said we could recover 18 lakhs worth of property from them. We went with our lawyer and went to recover it and took a car and Xerox machine," Mr Venkatswamy told NDTV.
The office computers were also on the list of items he could claim, but Mr Venkatswamy decided against taking them, considering the amount of information on them that would be needed.
"My client Venkataswamy had made an application under the provisions of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act claiming an occupancy right to the extent of three acres of land. The Land Tribunal was pleased to grant an occupancy right in the year 1987. This order was challenged by the government in 1994. The High Court had dismissed this petition..." Mr Venkatswamy's advocate RS Ravi said.
"The deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner and tahsildar came to the land in question to demolish the construction on the ground that it is a tank. We made an attempt to show the orders passed by the Land Tribunal as well as the judgement and decree passed by the city civil court. They did not care to look at the decree passed by the city civil court," Mr Ravi added.
When NDTV tried to find out why the officials did not follow the court's order, the Deputy Commissioner refused to comment on camera, while the Assistant Commissioner said he not see the order and could not comment.
Certainly a glitch in the government's anti-encroachment drive aimed at recovering illegally occupied land.