The wall of a mosque in Kadalpur was not the first religious structure that was razed by Greater Noida authorities. On July 19, eight days before IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal was suspended, a temple was demolished in Beta 1 sector, just seven kilometres from her office.

"We were given no notice, no warning. The officials came with a bulldozer and knocked down the building. This temple has existed here for at least nine years, where will residents go now?" said Harinder Bhati, Beta 1 RWA general secretary.

Sources in the collectorate said that when an encroachment has to be demolished, the government usually calls in the police and the sub-divisional magistrate to maintain law and order. According to reports, only a police escort was sent for the action on the temple. "But both Temple was also demolished, but Nagpal was not sent Nagpal and a police team were sent for the demolition in Kadalpur," said a senior official.

While the Uttar Pradesh government has said Nagpal was suspended on grounds of "causing communal tension" by demolishing the wall of the mosque, sources maintained that she reached the spot only after the wall was taken down, with some help from Kadalpur residents.

On Saturday, supporters of SP leader Narinder Bhati, who recently boasted that he got Nagpal suspended in 41 minutes, gathered at the Gautam Buddh Nagar collectorate to protest against Nagpal and District Magistrate Ravi Kant.

Haji Nanka Saithi, district president of the SP minority cell, said they had gathered to support Bhati. "The DM and Nagpal are communal and should not only be suspended but terminated. We did nothing wrong," he said.

The crowd also chanted slogans against Kant's report which stated that Nagpal's actions had not caused any communal tension. They carried banners that read, "The suspension of the SDM is right, the district magistrate's report is incorrect."

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