ARA/PATNA: In what appears to be a mockery of the law and law-enforcing agencies, two women sold as many as 16 plots of a disputed government land within three months, and the officials concerned, including the registrar, did not bother to either cross-check their credentials or alert the Income Tax department to the transactions worth a whopping Rs 16.37 crore.

This despite the fact a dispute over the ownership of the land at Ara, district HQ town of Bhojpur, is sub judice. As of now, the government’s Mounted Military Police since 1919 has its HQ on the land, which also houses a church and, as such, is known popularly as Church Maidan.

Tipped off by people during his Nischay Yatra, CM Nitish Kumar ordered Patna divisional commissioner Anand Kishor and Patna zone IG N H Khan to probe the land deal. All this, however, did not deter the Bhojpur police as they sat for almost two months on Khan’s directive on May 26 this year to lodge an FIR in this connection. The FIR was lodged in Ara’s Nawada police station on July 15.

While directing Bhojpur SP Kshatraneel Singh to lodge the FIR, IG Khan in his inquiry report to commissioner Kishor also requested him to get the matter further investigated by officers not belonging to the Bhojpur district administration as the local officials appeared to be hand in glove with the land grabbers.

According to the IG’s report, the government plot (thana number 237, khata number 1766, 2600, 2611, 2677, 2680, 2681 and 2682) measuring 158.58 decimal has been fraudulently shown on deeds as owned by Namrata Singh of Babu Bazaar locality in Ara and Manju Singh of Hardiya in the district.

These two women through 16 different deeds sold the plot to Lallu Singh, Anku, Anshu Singh, Janardan Singh, Meena Singh, Adarsh, Ajay Kumar, Virendra Prasad Singh, Amarnath Singh, Bhawna Singh, Bhugendra Singh, Ashok Singh, Punam Devi, Raju Kumar and Manish Kumar.

While 13 plots were sold on October 7 and two plots on November 15 last year, one plot was sold on January 18 this year. The sellers and buyers are family members.

The IG’s report further says the two women used the power of attorney given by one Johnson T John of Aligarh Road in UP’s Hathras district to sell the land. John is shown on the land documents as the deputy registrar of the Metropolitan Vishesh of India and chairman of the Indian Church.

However, anyone by the name of John has never been a party in the litigations in the Patna high court over the claim and counter-claim on the land ownership by the state government and the Methodist Church of India.

According to the IG’s report, the government of Bihar in 1979 declared the land as the central government’s property after which the then Bhojpur survey superintendent in 1995 declared the plot as that of MMP.

On July 21, 1998, a Bihar government joint secretary issued a letter according to which the property in the pre-Independence era was for the Dominion of India and its ownership was vested in His Majesty and registered in the name of Kaisar-e-Hind. After the enforcement of India’s own Constitution, the land became the central government’s property.

The Methodist Church moved the Patna high court against the government order, and the court on July 29, 2005 ruled in favour of the petitioner. According to the court order, the church, falling in the category of military church, was constructed for King George-V while he was on way from Kolkata to Delhi via road. In the 1923 survey, the stable, road, garden and few other parts were in the name of Kaisar-e-Hind, but the government of India on March 23, 1948 issued orders that the churches and connected buildings across India would be handled by the authorities concerned of respective churches.

The church authorities filed another writ petition in 2009, seeking the court’s direction against the government’s interference. The petition was allowed on January 17, 2012. A third writ petition filed by the church in 2013 was also allowed on March 2, 2016.

However, the Bihar government has filed an LPA in the high court and the matter remains sub judice.

At least 22 people, including the then Bhojpur district registrar, have been named as accused in the FIR, according to Nawada police station SHO Neyaz Ahmed.

Koelwar circle inspector Chandra Shekhar Gupta, who has been made the investigating officer of the case, told TOI over the phone that one Pramod Kumar Singh was apparently the district registrar when the plots were sold. “I have asked sub-registrar Buddha Prakash to officially communicate me the name of the registrar who allowed the sale and purchase of the 16 plots,” Gupta said.

Bhojpur SP Singh did not respond to the phone calls made by TOI while DM Birendra Kumar Yadav refused to comment, saying the matter was sub judice.

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