The alleged illegal allotment of a Government plot of land by the Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) to former Odisha High Court Judge laxmikanta Mohapatra, the sale of the plot and a double-storied building on it to Artha Tatwa CMD Pradeep Sethy by Mohapatra and the subsequent sale of the property by Sethy to Advocate General Ashok Mohanty have raised many eyebrows.
Alleging that there is a nexus among Justice Mohapatra, now acting Chief Justice of High Court, Manipur, Sethy, Advocate General Mohanty and officials in the CDA, RTI activist Jayant Kumar Das has questioned the very way the two legal luminaries and the fraudulent chit fund firm operator in connivance with the CDA authorities threw laws to the wind concerning sale and transfer of the property.
Das, who claimed that he has documentary evidence of the illegal transaction, said Justice Mohapatra had owned the plot of 4,000 sqft in the Markat Nagar area in Cuttack in 2007. While applying for the plot, Mohapatra used his official letter head on October 11, 2006 and submitted a false affidavit that he did not own any property in Cuttack to the CDA. The CDA, on the other hand, allotted the plot under discretionary quota on May 25, 2007 without crosschecking the information. The plot’s value was Rs 9 lakh.
Curiously, four years later on February 14, 2011, Mohapatra transferred the plot and the double-storied building on it to AT Group chief Sethy by simply an affidavit for Rs1 crore. Notably, while the plot was sold off without following the norms involving sale and registration of land, Mohapatra managed to evade tax worth Rs10 lakh to the Government. Surprisingly, the CDA also transferred the property by deviating from norms once again, Das alleged.
Nearly two and a half years later, Sethy sold the property to Advocate General Mohanty on October 3, 2012 through anaffidavit in the court of Executive Magistrate, Cuttack for just Rs1,000 more than the sum he paid to get it. Das questioned how could the valuation of the land, which increased to Rs 1 crore from Rs9 lakh within 4 years, rose by just Rs1,000 nearly two years later.
Das charged that it was a kickback by Sethy to the Advocate General to get legal protection for his firm that was already under scanner for fraudulent activities. He said by the time the transaction took place Sethy was facing several charges of duping investors of crores of rupees and was on the run.
Das said that as per a ruling of the Supreme Court, discretionary quota can be availed by kin of Defence personnel killed in war, disabled persons and landless farmers. However, justice Mohapatra availed the quota and the CDA knowingly bended rules to allot the plot.
The whole transaction of the property confirms a nexus between legal luminaries with fraudulent chit fund firm. A recent judgement on May 9 this year by a Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice TS Takhur and C Nagappan in Alok Jena Vs Union of India had said the mega money laundering would not have been possible without the role of influential persons in high places.
As such, action needs to be taken against ‘influential criminals’, whether top judiciary officials, politicians, police or top bureaucrats, the court said and directed the CBI to investigate the case and immediately take exemplary action according to law, said Das, demanding a fair and transparent probe into the illegal transaction of the plot and building and the honeymoon relation between the trio.
Das also cited another SC judgement pertaining to allotment of land to filmmaker Subash Ghai in Mumbai, where the land transfer was held illegal and it was recovered from him.He said here too the illegal land transfer to Judge Mohapatra under the discretionary quota should be recovered. He also sought to draw the attention of the SC to take suo motto cognizance of the case and do justice.