Barabanki (Uttar Pradesh): The ancestral mansion of late Indian hockey player, Kunwar Digvijay Singh also known as KD Singh Babu is set to be auctioned on March 11.
There is a lot of disappointment among the sports fraternity around the development.
The ancestral mansion of the hockey player is spread over 35,000 square feet area in the Civil Lines area. It is understood that a family dispute was going on between the sons of Thakur Raghunath Singh - Kunwar Rajendra Singh, Kunwar Bhupendra Singh, Kunwar Sukhdev Singh, Kunwar Naresh Singh, Kunwar Digvijay Singh and Kunwar Suresh Singh.
Sources said that a case was going on in a local court over the division of the property. The court had ordered in 2009 that the property should be sold and the money should be distributed between the brothers. However, on 16 February 2024, the mansion was sealed on orders from Upper Civil Judge Senior Division Khan Zeeshan Masood.
Also, the local court ordered to hold the auction for the ownership of the property on March 11 from 2:30 PM. The base price for the property is Rs five crores and the eight candidates, interested in buying the property had inspected it already.
However, several hockey buffs have demanded that the house should be turned into a museum. Former Officiating Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Dr Ammar Rizvi has written a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath demanding the state government take the rights of the mansion and convert it into a museum.
Apart from him, former Barbanki District BJP chief Ramnath Maurya and former skipper of Uttar Pradesh hockey team Salahuddin have also made a similar demand and wrote separate letters to Yogi Adityanath.
Kunwar Digvijay Singh, born on February 02, 1922, in Barabanki, became an excellent hockey player at the age of 14. He played his first tournament in Dewan, Barabanki and it was from here that his skills were honed.