The Rajya Nagarika Samaj on Friday alleged that a massive land fraud has taken place in the Malipada Mouza under the Chandaka police station here.
Addressing a Press meet here on Friday, Samaj president Prakash Rath alleged that the land mafias are selling land of elderly persons and deceased land owners by generating forged sale deeds and patta (land records.
Informing that victims lodged a complaint at the Chandaka PS on July 25, 2019, Rath said the police have so far arrested some brokers but have failed to nab the kingpin and the officers involved in the wrongful acts.
“The police have seized about 2,000 Government stamps and more that 5,000 sale deeds after conducting raids at the houses and offices of the arrested middlemen. From this, one can clearly see how the land mafias are active in the city,” said Rath.
The middlemen impersonate as land owners and sell lands with forged documents. Narayan Maharana, Arup Haldar, Bikash Panda, Lingaraj Rao, Ashok Panda, Dillip Sahu, Abinash Rout and Sumit Mohanty are some of them, said Rath.The involvement of the Khandagiri Revenue Inspector, Head Clerk and Registrar is also suspected, he added.
Social activist Pratap Sahu said expressed unhappiness that the main accused and the officers involved have not been arrested or interrogated yet. The police are also not able to come to a logical end due to the powerful people involved in the fraud, he added.
The Samaj has requested the Chief Minister, the Revenue Minister and the department Secretary to look into matter and take stringent action against the middlemen, kingpin and officers and render justice to the victims as soon as possible.
The Samaj also threatened that its members along with victims would sit on an indefinite strike in front of the Chief Minister’s residence Naveen Niwas if no action is taken against the culprits soon.
Among others, social activist Rajesh Behera, victims Udaynath Mahapatra, Pravat Tripathy and Kailash Chandra Panda were present.