With no takers, controversial SE Delhi bungalow to turn guest house

The bungalow has been lying vacant since April 2023, after it emerged that the monument was allegedly demolished by the then DJB chief executive officer Udit Prakash Rai to build a new government accommodation for himself.

The controversial bungalow allegedly constructed in 2021 by a former top Delhi Jal Board official after demolishing a 15th-century monument in south east Delhi’s Jal Vihar near Lajpat Nagar is now likely to be converted into a guest house, senior government functionaries confirmed.

The bungalow in Jal Vihar, which is likely to be converted into a guest house (HT Archive)

The bungalow has been lying vacant since September 2023. In April that year, it had emerged that the monument was allegedly demolished by the then DJB chief executive officer Udit Prakash Rai to build a new government accommodation for himself.

A senior government functionary said that the bungalow has been offered to multiple senior officials but no one has been willing to use it as an accommodation “due the controversy associated with it”.

“We are now planning to use it as a guest house so that the building is utilised,” the official cited aboveadded.

Water minister Parvesh Verma also confirmed to HT that plans for the same are afoot.

Officials, however, said that since the plot is marked only for residential use, its land use will have to be changed if it is converted into any other facility.

Last year, DJB officials had floated the idea of converting the house into a laboratory cum training centre.

The accommodation was at the centre of controversy in April 2023 after the Directorate of Vigilance issued a show cause notice to Prakash for allegedly razing the monument to construct a house for himself. The vigilance department said there was a “monument” and a “gateway” at this property. The monument also featured in the Archaeological Survey of India’s ‘List of Muhammadan and Hindu Monuments, Vol. IV’ and is referred to as a “Mahal”. It was built during the Sayyid rule in Delhi in 1418.

The notice said that Rai was responsible for the demolition, violating residential accommodation rules. It added that while Rai was entitled to a type V government housing, the built-up area of the house replacing the monument was 700 sqm, which exceeded the prescribed area of 403 sqm. Nearly ₹4 crore was spent on building the house, the department said.

On July 31, 2023, the Union home affairs ministry suspended Rai and asked him to vacate the house. Rai and his family left in September 2023, and the house has been vacant since then.

A government functionary said that senior officers have been reluctant to take it up as an accommodation. “...The property still belongs to DJB...but no one wants to be associated with the controversy.”