Angry residents of Kalikapur, on EM Bypass, laid siege on Kasba police station on Sunday morning, demanding the immediate release of nine people arrested over a land dispute.

A section of the residents, including women and children, had earlier gheraoed some policemen when they visited Kalikapur. The gherao was lifted on the intervention of borough chairman Sunil Chakraborty, CPM councillor Amal Majumdar and other leaders.

The trouble started around 9 on Sunday morning when police arrested nine youths, including some labourers and members of the local club, who were levelling out a plot that had been used as a playground for over a decade.

Police said the arrests were made on the basis of a complaint by Sabita Halder and her husband Nikunja, who claimed to have purchased the land, measuring over one bigha, to construct a building.

They told police that the youths were levelling out the plot without permission.

The siege on the police station ended only after it was decided that neither party would modify the plot in any way as it had been declared ?vested?.

?We cannot allow anybody to change the character of the plot. Local youths were arrested on the charge of levelling out the plot without valid documents,? said S.N. Gupta, superintendent of police (South 24-Parganas).

Naresh Biswas, member of local Uttar Purbachal Club Samanway, complained that police had unnecessarily arrested nine persons without citing any reason.

?How can police arrest our men simply on the basis of a complaint from realtors?? he asked.

Tarun Ghosh, general secretary of the club, said state minister for land and land reforms Abdul Rezzak Mollah had promised in October that he would take up the matter with the sports department.

?We have a plan to call on the minister next week to expedite the matter. Today?s development is most unfortunate,? Ghosh added.

Halder claimed that he had purchased the land without knowing that it had been declared vested.

?I have moved the high court and will decide on my course of action in accordance with the court?s order,? he asserted.