Private land road blocked for others accessing

Dear Sir In our village (North Kerala) there are 5-6 houses & road access is private land. This road was constructed around 40 years back by these villagers with permission from land owner. Even land owner was using same road. It is not been updated panchayat records till now & it is showing as private property. Some years back original land owner sold his entire property to some other person & new owner now want block the road by building gate. He claims that this is his private property. We have given complaint to police & hence this gate building temporarily halted Even Police & village panchayat people favouring land owner by getting benefits from him. There are no other road access to these houses. What is the solution? Is the private road used by villagers for so many years can be converted to public road by panchayat authorities?