Suchandra Seal shows the bruises she suffered while resisting the takeover. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Employees of the Council of Homoeopathic Medicine, a wing of the state government’s health department, have muscled their way into rooms they were ordered to vacate by a court.

Nearly 100 people, allegedly led by council registrar Gopal Chandra Ghosh and employee Naresh Kanshabanik, forcibly occupied four rooms on the ground floor of a two-storey house on Balaram Ghosh Street, belonging to Santi Seal, 65, on Tuesday.

Santi’s daughter-in-law Suchandra, 38, alleged that the men attempted to rip off her clothes when she tried to stop them. Her FIR against Ghosh, Kanshabanik and others has not led to arrests. The officer-in-charge of Shyampukur police station said: “Arrests are not mandatory. Those who occupied the rooms are all educated persons.”

Santi’s late father-in-law had rented out the rooms to the council over 30 years ago at a monthly rent of Rs 550. For the past 10 years, the rooms were under lock and key. In 2003, Santi’s son Sandip, 45, wrote to the council through his lawyer, asking it to vacate the rooms but did not receive a response. The same year, he, on behalf of his mother, filed an eviction suit against the council in City Civil Court.

The council did not contest the case. On March 7 this year, the judge passed an order in favour of Santi, asking the bailiff “to break open the padlock bolts” of the rooms. The bailiff executed the order on the same day. The furniture and other articles belonging to the council were dumped in a passage in front of the rooms.

On Tuesday, the men laid siege to the house when Sandip was in office. “I rang up Shyampukur police station and tried to resist them. Gopal Chandra Ghosh hit me on the hand. Some others tried to rip off my clothes,” said Suchandra. “The police station is a stone’s throw away from my house but the officers took half an hour to come to the spot. They did not try to resist the goons in any way.”

Omor Ali, the council chairman, said: “The rooms have been in our possession for more than 35 years. But the owner of the house illegally threw out our furniture and other articles and occupied the rooms. We have done nothing wrong by re-occupying them.” He claimed that the council had no knowledge of the court order.