Patna, April 21: Prabhu Nath Sharma, the younger brother of senior scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Jyoti Nath Sharma, was a happy person on Tuesday.

After nine days of struggle, he was allowed to stay in the family's ancestral house at Dehri-on-Sone in Rohtas district.

The Sharmas' house, located at Bara Patthar in Dehri-on-Sone, was freed from unauthorised possession of some local residents. On the directive of Rohtas district magistrate Sandeep Kumar R. Pudakalkatti, a team of officials headed by Dehri block development officer (BDO) Pankaj Kumar Upadhyay handed over the keys of the house to Prabhu.

An upbeat Prabhu said: "We have entered the house, which was in illegal occupation for long. I have no words to express my gratitude to the government officials, who took a serious note of the matter. It is because of their intervention that we have been able to re-enter the building, which was locked by some people."

Prabhu, however, said a portion of the building was still in the possession of some unauthorised occupants. "The district administration officials have promised to settle the issue at the earliest. The officials are cooperating with us. They are very positive towards settling the issue," he told this reporter over phone.

The state government took a serious note of the matter after a report was published in The Telegraph on Monday. Sources said chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh spoke to Pudakalkatti on Monday and issued necessary instructions to the latter.

Pudakalkatti swung into action and asked the sub-divisional officer, Kamlesh Kumar Singh, to look into the matter. Kamlesh held a meeting with the circle officer, BDO and the station house officer of Dehri on Monday evening and got detailed information.

Prabhu said the officials informed him around 2pm on Tuesday that the house had been freed from forcible occupation. "When I reached there, I found the doors of the room open. I immediately shifted to the house from the hotel room where we had been living for past 10 days," he added.

Prabhu also thanked deputy inspector-general (Shahabad range) Mohammad Rahman for taking interest in the matter. "Rahman told Dehri station house officer Ranjit Kumar Singh to get the building evicted," he said, adding that he had called on the DIG on Monday.

Prahbhu's agony started on April 11 when he landed at Dehri-on-Sone from Durgapur in Bengal (where the Sharmas are settled) and went to his house located at Babuganj. He opened the door of a room and dumped his luggage. Thereafter, he went to the local market for some work. He had come to the town after coming to know that a major part of his ancestral house had been illegally occupied.

When Prabhu returned after having breakfast, he was shocked to find another lock hanging at the door. Inquired, he was told by neighbours that one Guatam Sharma and his associates had locked the door. When went to inquire from Gautam, he and his uncle Bhim Sharma were brutally assaulted by the former.

Following this, Prabhu had approached police to get his house back but nothing had moved till The Telegraph highlighted the issue.