Bhubaneswar, June 11: Three members of a family were arrested here this afternoon after they came in the way of chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s car while he was coming out of the secretariat.

Police said this was the second time in the last one week that Gananath Dakua, a resident of Ganjam, the home district of the chief minister, had resorted to this tactic to draw the government’s attention to the alleged grabbing of his land by an anti-social. The 50-year-old man was detained along with his wife and daughter who had also come in the way of the chief minister’s convoy.

In the wake of the incident, Dakua and his family alleged harassment by the police, only to deny later.

“We have made several attempts to meet the chief minister, but failed. When we tried to meet him directly today, the police assaulted and detained us,” said Santosini, the daughter of Dakua. Inspector in charge of Capital police station Aseem Panda said that they had just evicted the family from the road in front of the secretariat’s entrance.

Dakua family had been camping in the city for more than three years to draw the attention of the chief minister. Earlier, the family members have tried to meet Naveen several times by throwing themselves in front of the chief minister’s convoy.

As the family was recently roaming around AG Square and PMG areas, an officer was deployed to keep a look on their movement, fearing they might jump in front of the chief minister’s convoy again.

“Though the Ganjam district administration is ready to provide all possible help to the family, they do not want to return to their village. We are also ready to inform the higher authorities of their demands,” said Panda.

Dakua’s tale of woes revolves around a small plot of land allotted to his wife Sabitri, 38, at Jilundi village by the Odisha government in 2002 under the Green Card scheme for adopting birth control methods. However, local goon Makar Prusty allegedly did not allow them to take possession of the plot and threatened them with dire consequences.

After the family moved high court in 2003, the administration provided them Rs 10,000 to build a house. Police security was also provided to them. The goon, however, managed to execute a series of violent attacks against them. Prusty, using his money and muscle power, allegedly booked them in a bogus theft case for which they were jailed for 28 days in January 2010.

After they were released, the harassment grew to such an extent that they were forced to flee the village and shift to Bhubaneswar in February 2010. Ever since, they have been running from pillar to post to meet the chief minister and other senior administrative officials to put an end to their misery.