BMC bulldozes Kangana Ranaut's 'illegal office' in Mumbai

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday started demolishing the Bandra office of Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut for alleged unauthorised modifications/extensions, officials said here.

A team of the BMC H-West Ward officers accompanied by a police posse reached the office with bulldozers, JCBs and other heavy equipment and took up the demolition work from the outside.

The development came barely hours after the BMC pasted a notice outside the office rejecting a reply filed by Kangana's lawyer, Rizwan Siddique, to the Tuesday (September 8) notice in which the civic body had listed a series of violations in the ongoing works in her office.

The BMC Executive Engineer said that he was satisfied that the (illegal) works were being carried out and the actress had failed to produce the permissions/approvals/sanction for it as per BMC laws.

"Therefore, the work carried out by you as mentioned in the notice schedule is declared as unauthorised," said the Executive Engineer.

He also said that the ongoing work on the premises was not stopped and warned that it is "liable for forthwith demolition at your risk, cost and consequences".

The notice also cautioned that the actress could face imprisonment of minimum one month up to one year besides penalties.

As per the notice, the violations include: merging of two bungalows, converting a ground-floor toilet into an office cabin, converting a storeroom into a kitchen, making an unauthorised pantry in the ground floor, adding toilets near the storeroom and a parking area, illegal partitions in first floor living room, an illegal meeting room in the "puja" room, converting a balcony into a habitable area besides a floor extension, etc.

The latest development came two days after a BMC team paid a surprise visit to her office and surveyed the premises at Bungalow No. 5, Chetan Row House, Nargis Dutt Road, Bandra West, on September 7.

The survey was followed by the notice to Ranaut to stop the ongoing works within 24 hours in her office of Manikarna Films on Tuesday.

The bungalow, which Ranaut had bought three years ago, is listed as a residential property by the BMC.