A Pakistani court has dismissed a petition filed by Bollywood actor Raj Kapoor regarding the ownership rights of the historic ‘Kapoor Haveli’ in Peshawar. This mansion of Raj Kapoor was declared a national heritage by the provincial government of Pakistan in 2016.
A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court dismissed the petitioner’s petition regarding the ownership rights over the mansion. Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Abdul Shakoor were included in this bench.
The court dismissed the petition in view of an order related to the acquisition process of veteran actor Dilip Kumar’s mansion in Peshawar’s popular Kissa Khwani Bazaar. Dilip Kumar’s mansion was also declared a national heritage by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif-led government.
The Additional Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa told the court that the Provincial Archeology Department had issued a notification in 2016 declaring Raj Kapoor’s mansion as a national heritage.
‘Raj Kapoor was born in this mansion’
On this, Justice Shakur asked the Department of Archeology whether they had any documents or any evidence to show that Raj Kapoor’s family had once lived in this mansion.
Sabahuddin Khattak, counsel for the petitioner Saeed Muhammad, told the court that the petitioner’s father had bought this mansion during an auction in 1969. He has remained the owner of this property since then. He claimed that no department has any such documents from which it can be known whether Raj Kapoor and his family had ever lived in this mansion or not.
Please tell that now this haveli is in a very dilapidated condition and its present owners want to demolish this haveli and build a commercial plaza here. But the Archeology Department is against it. Keeping in mind the historical importance of this mansion, he wants to preserve this heritage.
Raj Kapoor’s ancestral residence is known as ‘Kapoor Haveli’. This is in Peshawar’s famous Kissa Khwani Bazaar. It was built between 1918 and 1922 by Dewan Basheshwarnath Kapoor, grandfather of Raj Kapoor. Raj Kapoor and his uncle Trilok Kapoor were born in this mansion. Rishi Kapoor and his brother Randhir Kapoor have visited this mansion in the 1990s.
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