The public sector Life Insurance Corporation has asked Suruchi Sangha in New Alipore to vacate the land on which it allegedly built structures “without the authority of the LICI” by July 18.

Copies of a letter, dated June 16, sent by an advocate on behalf of LIC have been pasted on the club’s walls. The club has a two-storey building and an adjacent playground.

Suruchi Sangha has for years been one of the city’s leading Durga Puja organisers. With the festival less than four months away, a section of club officials said they had yet to decide how to respond to the notice.

The letter, addressed to the club’s president and secretary, states that the land comprising plots 498, 499, 500 and 501 in Block M of New Alipore “is a public premises within the meaning of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971” and that the club is in “unauthorised occupation” of the plots, which belong to LIC.

The Act, legal experts said, is intended to facilitate the prompt eviction of unauthorised occupants from government properties.

Suruchi Sangha was once a stronghold of the Biswas brothers — former sports minister Aroop Biswas and his brother Swarup, who wielded influence in Bengal’s entertainment industry in Tollygunge.

A day after Swarup was arrested on June 4, the club was vandalised by a section of local residents who accused the Biswas brothers of several offences. Protesters tore down club banners and pulled out and smashed furniture. Central forces and police restored order.

In the letter, LIC stated that it had never “authorised you to use the premises for any purpose whatsoever”.

It adds: “In the circumstances, I, as an agent and advocate of my client... do hereby give you notice for vacating the premises... and call upon you to vacate and deliver up vacant and peaceful possession of the said to my
client before the expiry of 18.7.2026.”

Some residents said the notice was first pasted on the club’s walls on Wednesday. By Saturday, portions of it had been torn away in some places.

“LIC properties are defined under the provisions of the Public Premises Act. If the club fails to comply, an eviction proceeding will follow against the club under the provisions of the Act,” Sanjukta Ray, the advocate who sent the letter, told Metro.

“This proceeding will be held before the LIC’s estate officer. If no representative from the club turns up, the estate officer will decide what to do next,” she said.

The letter came within days of an LIC team lodging a complaint with New Alipore police station, alleging that the ground where Suruchi Sangha organises its Durga Puja had been illegally occupied and seeking restoration of the land to the corporation.

Without Trinamool’s support, a section of club members appeared uncertain about the way forward.

“We have not yet decided how to respond to the letter. We will meet next week and decide,” a senior club member said. “The same applies to our Puja preparations. We will take a collective decision after consulting our members.”