IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, under suspension for allegedly demolishing the wall of a religious structure in a village in Gautam Buddha Nagar, has reportedly denied having ordered the demolition of the said wall.
Ms Nagpal, according to sources, told UP chief secretary Javed Usmani when she met him on Friday that she had not ordered the demolition of the wall and that she had been sent to the Kadalpura village in Greater Noida by the district magistrate who had asked her to resolve the matter.
The suspended officer, sources said, told the chief secretary that she had told the villagers that as per Supreme Court rules, religious structures cannot be built on government land and also require special clearances.
The villagers, she said, pulled down the wall themselves. It may be recalled that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had claimed that Durga Nagpal was suspended because she had razed the wall of a mosque which could have stoked communal tensions.