The Congress party’s office in dilapidated state near Clock Tower, Ludhiana. (Express photo by Gurmeet Singh)High drama prevailed at the Congress’s office near Clock Tower in the Old City area of Ludhiana on Wednesday when court bailiffs reached the premises, broke open locks, vacated the office of furniture and documents, and handed over the property‘s possession to its owners, following a local court order.Property owner Vimmy Gogna had earlier moved the court, demanding possession of her property. Her husband Surinder Kumar alleged that the Congress “illegally” held to their property for years and “never paid rent”.On the other hand, Congress district president (Urban) Sanjay Talwar claimed that they were “completely unaware of any such dispute case ongoing in the court and never received any summons”.Talwar said that they were ready to pay if any rent was pending and would present their side before the court on Thursday. “The Congress has had its office on the premises for over 50-60 years, but even my predecessors did not receive any summons,” he said.Drama ensued minutes after bailiffs broke the locks and installed the new ones. Congress workers, led by Talwar, also reached there and allegedly removed the locks installed by bailiffs and put their own locks. Later, both sides submitted written applications to the local police station.In an order issued on July 11, Civil Judge Supinder Singh ordered bailiffs: “Whereas the under-mentioned property is in the occupancy of Ashwani Sharma, president of District Congress Committee (Rekhi building, near Clock Tower). You are hereby directed to put the said Vimmy Gogna in possession of the same, and hereby authorised to remove any person bound by the decree who may refuse to vacate the same.”Prior to Talwar, Sharma headed Ludhiana Congress’s urban unit.Story continues below this adThe court further said: “Bailiff is directed to break open the lock of the premises in question and shall prepare the inventory of the items lying on the premises… If the stay order is produced by the other party, then warrants of possession should be returned back to this court.”Speaking with The Indian Express, Surinder Kumar said, “We have been owners of this property for nearly 25 years since we purchased it. The Congress had been illegally occupying the premises and had never paid rent. The property is in shambles, and they do not even open the locks as the building is unsafe. Its roofs have caved in, and they have turned their so-called office into a dilapidated structure due to a lack of maintenance. Congress leaders do not even enter here for months as the rooms can collapse. We moved court around 8 years ago, demanding possession of our property. The court issued the possession orders in our favour after they never attended any hearing.”“On Wednesday, the court bailiffs reached the premises to vacate it and broke open the locks as per the court order. They put new locks and gave us the keys. The entire procedure was videographed. As per the orders, we loaded one vehicle with the Congress’s belonging which were lying inside. We were loading the second vehicle when Congress workers reached there and started creating a nuisance. They broke open the locks put up by the court officials and installed their own locks, moving their stuff inside the office. We have submitted a written application to the local police station and will also be informing the court tomorrow (Thursday), demanding contempt of court proceedings against them,” Kumar added.Meanwhile, Talwar said, “We respect the court, but we never received any summons in this case. We were not even aware that any such case was ongoing. My predecessor Ashwani Sharma also never received any summons. Today, Congress workers reached the spot ahead of me, and they might have broken the locks, assuming that some anti-social elements were trying to grab our office space, as we were not shown any such court order. We have informed the local police that we did not mean to disrespect any court order, and we learned about it later. We are ready to pay the rent if pending, and will take this fight ahead legally. We will also move the court tomorrow and file an appeal that we should be heard first.”Story continues below this adDivision Number 1 police station SHO Inspector Rajinderpal Singh said, “The chaos during the implementation of the court order happened because the bailiffs did not inform us that they were here to take possession. Otherwise, we would have provided them the required support. Both sides have submitted applications. The Congress claimed that they did not mean to dishonour the court order and were unaware of the same, due to which they broke open the locks. The owners claimed that it was contempt of court. However, we will proceed as per the fresh court order.”Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Congressludhiana