Meerut, Jan. 3 -- The Sambhal district administration has detected illegal encroachments on eight bighas of land recorded as a graveyard near the disputed Shahi Jama Masjid-Shri Harihar Temple site, officials said. As such, it has served notices on 48 occupants following a detailed land measurement exercise conducted under heavy security, they added. According to officials, the action was taken after a survey on December 30 in the Kot Purvi locality. The land, registered under Gata (plot) number 32/2, spans around 4,780 square metres and is officially recorded as a graveyard in the revenue records. Tehsildar Dhirendra Pratap Singh said on Friday that the notices were formally issued after the completion of the measurement process and have now been served to the identified occupants. "All notice recipients have been given 15 days to submit their replies. Their responses and documents will be examined at the administrative and legal levels. If the explanations are found unsatisfactory or valid ownership documents are not produced, action will be initiated to remove the encroachments," Singh noted. Clarifying the legal position, the tehsildar stressed that payment of property tax to the municipal council did not confer ownership rights. He added that although initial reports indicated the presence of 22 houses and shops on the disputed land, multiple families were found residing within the same structures. As a result, individual notices were issued to each family, taking the total number of notice recipients to 48. Officials said the administration had received complaints regarding illegal construction of houses and shops on a portion of the cemetery land. The issue gained momentum after Shri Kalki Sena (Nishkalank Dal) national convener and advocate Swasthya Tyagi submitted a memorandum to district magistrate Rajendra Pansiya on December 12 last year demanding the removal of illegal encroachments from the graveyard land. Taking cognisance of the complaint, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Ramanuj constituted a special team to probe the matter and oversee further action. The tehsildar has been appointed as the in-charge of the team, while naib tehsildars Bablu Kumar, Deepak Jurail and Arvind Kumar Singh have been named as co-incharges. Revenue officials noted that the alleged encroachments were believed to be around 60 to 65 years old. The recent measurement exercise was conducted to ascertain the exact extent of the alleged illegal occupation....