Surat: The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Wednesday suspended five civic officials over alleged procedural lapses in connection with the demolition of houses at Nasir Nagar on May 30, a day before the matter is scheduled to be heard by the Gujarat High Court.

The action comes more than a month after the demolition and follows a preliminary inquiry into the role of municipal officials. According to sources, the officials failed to satisfactorily explain why they did not stop the demolition despite it allegedly being carried out without following the prescribed legal procedure.

Records indicate that SMC teams had only been assigned to carry out demarcation of land required for a road widening project. However, the inquiry found that the officials did not intervene when the demolition took place.

The suspended officials are Executive Engineer Sujal Prajapati, Executive Engineer and Central Zone Engineering Head Jayang Jivenramjiwala, Deputy Engineer (Civil) Arpan Parmar, Assistant Engineer (Civil) Monik Gadhiya, and Junior Engineer (Civil) Naresh Galchar.

According to the suspension order, the officials have been placed under suspension to ensure a fair and impartial inquiry.

A senior civic official said that even if the officers had not ordered the demolition, they were expected to stop the exercise if it was being carried out without due legal process.

The preliminary findings were based on a report submitted by Central Zone Chief Ashish Naik along with property-related documents. The inquiry committee also sought written explanations from the officials before submitting its conclusions.

Residents of Nasir Nagar have alleged that nearly 100 houses were demolished without prior notice or adequate opportunity to seek legal relief. The demolition was carried out using labourers and backhoe loaders deployed by a contractor, while police personnel, including the Special Operations Group (SOG), were present at the site.

The incident sparked controversy after civic officials gave conflicting statements. Initially, Central Zone officials denied SMC’s role in the demolition, a position that Municipal Commissioner M. Nagarajan maintained until June 20, when he acknowledged in a video message that the demolition had been carried out by the corporation while stating that the matter was sub judice. Earlier, on June 11, Ashish Naik had said SMC teams were present only for demarcation.

The inquiry committee, headed by Deputy Municipal Commissioner Meena Gajjar and constituted on June 9, submitted its report on Tuesday, a day before the High Court hearing.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Vinod Moradiya had questioned the composition of the inquiry committee and demanded that state government officials be included. Former Congress municipal councillor Aslam Cyclewala said the suspensions came only after the affected residents approached the High Court and urged the inquiry to identify the role of all those involved, including politicians, police personnel and businessmen. DeshGujarat