Sambalpur: The Collector of Odisha’s Sambalpur Siddheswar Baliram Bondar has ordered the immediate unsealing of a house that was wrongfully locked and sealed by bank officials and local block administration, bringing an end to a 21-day ordeal for a distressed family.
The incident took place at Gautam Pali village under Jamankira block.
On June 5, officials from the District Central Cooperative (DCC) Bank, accompanied by local revenue and block administration staff, arrived at the residence of Dhananjay Pradhan, a 62-year-old differently-abled man, and abruptly sealed the property over a defaulted loan. Since then, Dhananjay had been living in a single-room house of a relative in the same neighbourhood with his 57-year-old wife, his 35-year-old widowed daughter-in-law Seema Pradhan, and two granddaughters, aged 14 and 9.
The enforcement sparked public outrage as the family consistently maintained that neither Dhananjay nor any family members had availed the loan or acted as a guarantor. The family was allegedly given just 10 minutes to vacate. Essential belongings, school books, and uniforms for the 14- and 9-year-old girls remained locked inside the sealed section, severely disrupting daily life and education.
The family alleged that around five years ago,a distant relative, Prasanna Pradhan, had taken a loan of around Rs 17 lakh five years ago, which has since ballooned to nearly Rs 27 lakh with interest. The bank reportedly accepted collateral that mistakenly included both Prasanna’s 11-decimal plot and Dhananjay’s adjacent 17-decimal plot, despite the latter possessing a separate Record of Rights (RoR) for his land. They repeatedly produced the relevant documents before bank officials and the tehsildar, who allegedly refused to consider the documents, stating that the separate land record was not reflected in the online revenue database.
After repeated appeals to Jamankira Tehsildar and Sambalpur Collector went unheeded initially, media coverage and public attention prompted swift intervention with Bondar reviewing the matter and ordering an inquiry. On Thursday, he directed the block administration and Kuchinda sub-collector to unseal the residential portion of the house on Friday, restoring possession to the family. The bank has also been directed to exercise caution and not inconvenience the family until the dispute is resolved.
