The nine-member committee probing the Swargadwar cremation land grab scam submitted an interim report to the RDC on Wednesday.
The report is on two aspects of the probe. While one about the present status of the Swargadwar cremation land, the other one is on the status of the 16.4 acres land which was allegedly grabbed by unscrupulous businessmen and powerful local politicians and their aides, informed district Collector Arabind Agarwal, heading the probe body. Agarwal said the team had examined thoroughly 80 land records of total 135 transactions of the cremation land and found gross anomalies in land deals.
After much hue and cry in the media and other circles, the RDC had formed a nine- member body comprising officials of Revenue, PKDA, municipality, Shree Jagannath Temple and land Consolidation and Settlement to conduct a probe into the scam. Gobardhan Peeth spokesperson Manoj Rath revealed in a media briefing that land mafias have encroached Samadhis of late Shankaracharyas and constructed hotels and apartments on the land. Of the 120 samadhis, only ten are left, he said.
As per religious tradition, Shankaracharyas after their death are buried in the mutt campus and a small tomb is erected over it while Shiva lingas is installed on the Samadhi and is offered puja every day. Hence, the Samadhi place is considered sacred.
Rath said that mutt won litigations against encroachers and mafias in various legal forums as the civil court declared their records void. The Gobardhan Peeth had approached the district administration to evict the encroachers. But unfortunately no action was taken till date, Rath said, and added that in a case the Odisha High Court had opined to initiate criminal case against the land grabbers. He alleged that relatives of BJD-led Puri Municipality Chairperson Jayant Sarangi were instrumental in land grabbing while Khetram Joshi, the power of attorney holder of the mutt and the then lawyer of the mutt, is involved in the scam.
Citing an example of land grabbing, Rath said while one person was granted only three decimal of land to raise a Tulsi garden, he had sold three acres of land to various persons manipulating the document.
Collector Agarwal heading the probe team along with Sub Collector Madhusudan Dash, and the local Tehsildar on Wednesday visited the Gobardhan mutt and discussed the issue at length with the mutt officials and asked them to present scam related documents to the probe body. Talking to mediapersons, Agarwal said legal action in civil and criminal forums would be initiated against the scamsters while expansion of cremation ground would proceed as per schedule. The Puri Konark Development Authority (PKDA) had submitted the land schedule for acquisition of the 1.530 acres of land for development of cremation ground, Agarwal added.