look news india
A very shocking and sensational revelation has come to light in the investigation of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, regarding the land scam. ACB investigation has revealed that the vicious land mafia, in connivance with the government machinery, sold about 60 decimals of valuable land acquired by Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in the market in the name of an illiterate tribal woman. In this mega scam, the then Town Circle Officer (CO) also misused his position and played a major role in handing over the government land to the land mafia.
The land was acquired in 1968, ‘bloody game’ was played during digital recording
According to the government documents received by the ACB, this entire case is related to a total of 93 decimal land of account number 107 and plot number 1963/1693 of Mauza Morhabadi. This land was purchased by Abdul Ghafoor Khan from Gajadhar Badaik in the year 1947 and later by Banarasi Das Arora in 1962. Bihar-Jharkhand Government had legally acquired 60 decimal land of this plot by paying appropriate compensation to Banarasi Das Arora for the expansion of RIMS Hospital in the year 1968-69 (Case No. 01/68-69). But in the year 2015, when the land documents were being made online (digital), the corrupt officers of the zonal office and the land mafia together manipulated the Government Register-2 and showed it as private property.
The case rejected by the court was revived with the help of the zonal office.
ACB investigation has revealed that influential land mafias like Rajesh Jha, Manoj Badaik, Chaitan Kumar, Sonu Sharad and Pramod Mahato had made an illiterate woman named Sonmait Devi their pawn. Sonmait Devi had earlier fought a case for land restitution in the SAR court, claiming herself to be a descendant of Khatiani Rayat Sahodari Devi. In the year 1992 itself, the court had completely rejected her claim because she could not prove any relation to her sister Devi. Then the court had given a clear order that until a real heir of this land is found, this entire land will remain under government protection with the Circle Officer (CO). But the mafia suppressed the same rejected order and with the help of zonal office employees, registered Sonmait Devi’s name in Register-2.
Power of Attorney and caste fraud based on fake genealogy
During digitalization, the land mafia duped the illiterate Sonmait Devi that all she had to do was go to the registry office and get her thumb impression. After this, the mafia got the woman to write a ‘power of attorney’ in the name of her alleged relative Chaitan Kumar. The most surprising thing is that the woman who was declaring herself as Chikbadik (tribal) in the court papers, was declared as ‘non-tribal’ (General Category) overnight in order to find easy ways to sell the land, so that the land could be easily transferred bypassing the stringent rules of Chhotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT Act).
Mafia stole crores of rupees, pawn got only a few thousand
The real mastermind of this land scam worth crores of rupees was Rajesh Jha and his associates. Munni Kumari, wife of the main accused Rajesh Jha, in her statement recorded under Section 180 of the BNSS, has confessed that she did not know about any land transaction and this entire conspiracy was woven by her husband. Investigation has revealed that Sonmait Devi, in whose name this game worth crores of rupees was played, was cheated by the land mafia by handing over just a few thousand rupees.
Multistorey and religious place built to hide illegal occupation
To gain complete possession of the land, accused Rajesh Jha first got 11 decimals of land registered in the name of his wife Munni Kumari. After this, along with the developer M/s Lucky Convergence, a multi-storey building was constructed on the disputed government land, which was later declared illegal and demolished. Not only this, to avoid opposition from the local people and to get social and religious acceptance of their illegal occupation, the vicious mafias had also cleverly identified a temple and Sarna Sthal (tribal religious place) there. At present, the role of many big officials from zonal office to Municipal Corporation and RERA is on the radar of ACB regarding this deep conspiracy.
