DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government on Tuesday sent demolition squads to hammer down the house of the journalist who had "exposed" chief minister Harish Rawat's personal secretary Mohammad Shahid, a senior Gujarat cadre IAS officer, in a sting that purportedly showed him negotiating bribes for changes to the state's policy on sale of alcohol.

The video of the sting operation, which the BJP -- attacked from all sides on the Vyapam scam and on Sushma Swaraj's and Vasundhara Raje's links with Lalit Modi -- used as a counter offensive against the Congress in Parliament had resulted in the Uttarakhand administration taking back all the key departments that were under Shahid, including excise, minority affairs and anti-corruption. Days after the controversy, there was a letter from the depart of personnel and training (DoPT) that asked Shahid to immediately report back to his parent cadre. The senior bureaucrat has been on leave since.

On Tuesday, both mediapersons and the opposition BJP in the state were up in arms at the “blatant persecution” of journalist Ashok Pandey, who had suddenly gone underground after the sting was aired and has resurfaced only a few days back in Dehradun. The government, however, says Pandey had built sections of his house without valid permissions.

The MDDA (Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority) defended the action and maintained Pandey’s house was not constructed as per the layout plan. In an official statement, it said "the owner was informed about the violation way back in 2012". The order of demolition was issued on July 10 and communicated to Pandey as per rules and the illegal portion of the structure was demolished in the presence of police and other officials, MDDA added. It also said the "construction area at the site was twice what has been shown in the building plan map".

Around 9 am, a huge contingent of district administration, police and MDDA officials landed at Pandey’s house in Tagore Villa area of the state capital and started demolishing structures with hammers. Pandey, whose sting operation's video was made public in Delhi on July 22, alleged that he was being hounded at the CM’s behest. “I fear for my life. If anything happens to me or my family, it’ll be the sole responsibility of CM Harish Rawat. I only did my job as journalist to expose the corruption,” he told TOI.

Pandey added, “The CM is shielding his official. I am filing a PIL in Uttarakhand high court seeking removal of the IAS officer as well as a CBI probe into the case since the state government is unwilling to take any action in the matter.”

The journalist alleged there were thousands of buildings with structural violations in the state capital but he was singled out because of the sting operation. “It has been more than a year that my file for compounding (a provision where minimal structural changes can be made permanent after paying a penalty) is pending with the MDDA,” Pandey said.

The BJP's state unit, meanwhile, held a series of protests in Dehradun against the MDDA's demolition of Pandey's under-construction house. “The demolition of the mediaperson’s house reveals the real face of the Congress government — that it can stoop to any level against anyone who exposes their shady deeds. The journalist has done public service by exposing corruption at the highest level in Uttarakhand,” a party spokesperson said.