Delhi Police and CRPF personnel inside the UNI office on Friday. Photo: Special arrangement
Delhi Police along with paramilitary forces on Friday (March 20, 2026) reportedly pulled out at least 50 journalists from the United News of India (UNI) Rafi Marg office on a court order over a land dispute.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Sachin Sharma told The Hindu that the Delhi Police along with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel visited the UNI office premises to provide security to the Lands and Development Authority after the Supreme Court issued an order to vacate the premises in favor of the latter. “As per the HC order, we were there to provide security to the L&DO officers and asked all UNI employees to vacate the premises,” Mr Sharma said.
The case related to an order issued by the Lands and Development Authority under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs asking the news agency to vacate the premises.
The High Court on Friday upheld the cancellation of UNI’s land allotment at Rafi Marg, noting that the agency had failed to construct a building on the land for more than four decades and was essentially “squatting on valuable public land”.
The High Court found no illegality in the cancellation letter dated March 29, 2023 issued by the L&DO canceling the allotment of land to UNI at Rafi Marg. UNI filed a lawsuit against the cancellation letter in 2023. It said that under the original terms of the 1979 allotment, UNI was required to complete construction of the composite office complex within two years of taking over. However, no construction activity has been carried out and no preliminary steps towards the project have been initiated.
The order states that the land was originally to be jointly used by UNI, the Press Club of India and the Press Association, but the primary allottee defaulted.
“No notification has been given”
Sabir Haque, an employee of UNI told The Hindu that the police arrived around 6 pm on Friday and without showing any notice or giving time, asked all the employees to vacate. “They didn’t give us time to talk to our management. They didn’t allow reporters who had gone on assignment to enter the office and collect their stuff,” Mr Haque said. Meanwhile, the police pulled all the employees, even the women, out of their seats and pushed them out of the office, he said.
Referring to social media platform X, the news organization wrote: “Despite requests from employees to be given some time to wait for company management to arrive, and requests for notice, they forcibly dragged and pushed some employees, including female employees, from their seats and out of the newsroom. The employees were also subjected to verbal abuse.”
However, the DCP said that no journalists were manhandled. “We took a video of the whole process,” he said.
UNI further claimed in its statement that the police had threatened the workers by saying that if they “did not leave peacefully, they would have to use force”.
Currently Delhi Police has closed the office premises. A notice posted on its gate states that the compound was taken over by the Government of India on March 20 in accordance with the judgment of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court on March 20. “Any entry, occupation or use of the premises by any person without the permission of L&DO is strictly prohibited and will require action as per law,” the notice said.
(With inputs from Rocky Singh)
Published – 21 March 2026 00:09 IST
