UP: BSP MP Ansari’s wife booked for ‘encroaching on evacuee land’

“The case that has been lodged against my wife is against a court order which had stayed the Revenue Board’s proceedings declaring the said land as an evacuee property. In a similar case of evacuee property, an FIR was lodged against my brother’s sons. The FIR has been quashed by the High Court. Now, they are lodging a similar case against my wife. We have been paying taxes for this piece of land and have bought it after getting all clearances. The land was bought by us 20 years ago. In August this year, the government realized that it was an evacuee property. The High Court said that the status quo should be maintained in the matter. How can an FIR be lodged then? This is against the court order,” Ansari told The Indian Express. Evacuee property refers to land assets left behind by people who migrated from India during Partition.

The FIR against Afzal’s wife, Farhat Ansari, and unidentified others was lodged on Thursday under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 447 (criminal trespass), 448 (house-trespass) and under sections of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.

The complaint said, “This is to bring to your notice that in Jiamau village in Lucknow district, there is a piece of land which is 1.309 hectares. The said property is categorised as an evacuee property in revenue records… The above evacuee property is vested with the state government. Under the revenue rules, there is no provision for such a land… being allotted to a private individual. On part of the above property, Mrs Farhat Ansari, wife of Afzal Ansari, has illegally got her house constructed, and she is damaging the property. This is also resulting in losses to the government in terms of revenue. She has taken over the land, and it was not allotted to her by the government. And under a conspiracy, she has grabbed the land and has encroached on it…”

The complaint has been lodged by Surjan Lal, who is the Lekhpal (revenue official) for Jiamau.

Lal told The Indian Express that the construction done by Farhat had been completed on around 4,000 square feet of the said property.

Station House Officer, Hazratganj, Anjani Kumar Pandey said that during investigation, it would become clear how much property was encroached on and the alleged involvement of others in the “conspiracy”.

On August 26, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) with the help of the district police demolished two “illegal constructions” built in the name of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s family members in Dalibagh area of Lucknow. Declared as a historysheeter at Mohammadabad police station in Ghazipur district, he is an MLA from Mau Sadar seat.

As per the LDA officials, the buildings were constructed without an approved map. The structures came up on an evacuee property.