The DC, Kamaluddin, confirmed the receipt of a letter from DoA asking for cancellation of the lease and handing it over to DoA.

Shankhanidhi House is a building with significant architectural features on Tipu Sultan Road in the old part of the city.

Defying the law, the then ADC (Revenue) of DC office leased out two-thirds of this listed archaeological heritage building on February 2, 2002.

The place now houses an automobile workshop, lube shops and an office of workshop owners' association. Besides, two families reside there.

Present inhabitants of the house have changed its original features according to their whims. An automobile workshop rented out by the lessees on the ground floor has blackened the beautiful courtyard.

Following reports published in Star City, the DoA said that they would send a letter to the DC office asking them to cancel the lease.

Ananda Gopal Sankhanidhi, the successor of Sankhanidhi family who lives in India, visited Dhaka in May and urged the authorities to preserve this historical site.

According to an inscription, whitewashed at present, it was built in 1921 by two merchant brothers Lal Mohan Saha and Gaur Nitai Saha.

Paribesh Bachao Andolon, an environmentalist group, urged the DoA to free the historical site from an illegal lease issued by the DC office.