Ex-Bhojpur DM under scanner in church land case

PATNA: Former Bhojpur DM Birendra Prasad Yadav, DDC Inayat Khan and registrar Pramod Kumar Singh are under scanner for their role in the sale of a disputed government land worth several crores at Ara. The headquarters of the mounted military police has been there along with a church for at least 70 years.
Sources said the three officers were transferred following the illegal land deal was exposed following an inquiry ordered after it was brought to the notice of CM Nitish Kumar during his visit to the district in January.It is alleged that the 158.58 decimal plot has been fraudulently sold to 16 private persons by two women named Namrata Singh of Babu Bazaar and Manju Singh of Hardiya in Bhojpur district.
The Holy Saviour Church also claims the plot ownership. The case between the church and the state government is pending before the Patna high court, but the plot was sold for Rs16.37 crore, including Rs2.36 crore stamp fees and Rs34 lakh as other fee.
Sources said questions were raised on the role of the DM and his subordinates by a three-member team of ADM rank officers of the Patna commissionerate formed by Patna divisional commissioner Anand Kishor to investigate the matter after Patna zone IG Naiyyar Hasnain Khan sent a preliminary investigation report to him urging further probe at the administrative level.
Talking to TOI, Patna divisional commissioner Anand Kishor said the report of the three-member committee formed by him was sent to the state government a few days back. Though Anand refused to disclose the content of the report, he said, “The process to cancel the sale deeds was in progress.”
Earlier, the IG had also found the role of SP Kshatranil Singh unsatisfactory as he had not issued orders for a long time to lodge an FIR in the land forgery case. The IG had then ordered the SP to fix responsibility of the officials responsible for the negligence, but the former Bhojpur SP sat for over a month on his superior’s order dated May 26 to lodge an FIR in the forgery case.
Income tax department officials said their intelligence and criminal investigation (I & CI) wing automatically starts investigation on suspicious property sale and purchase of more than Rs50 lakh. “A quarterly report is filed by the district registrars to the department, which scrutinizes it further,” said a senior I-T official. However, he did not disclose if any investigation in the matter had been initiated.