Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has recommended suspension of a senior official, who was the additional district magistrate, north Delhi, under the Revenue department in 2021, over an alleged "scam" involving transfer of forest land to private individuals.
Five officers, including an ADM, two SDMs, a sub registrar and a deputy secretary of Delhi Government, were suspended last month on LG's instructions over land-related "scams" in north and south Delhi.
"The LG has approved initiation of major penalty proceedings and recommended to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for the suspension of Nitin Jindal (DANICS), then ADM (North) under the revenue department of the Delhi government following the illegal sale and transfer of government land worth crores of rupees in North Delhi," said sources aware of the development.
According to the sources, it may be recalled that Saxena has been laying stress on complete probity in public dealings and “Zero Tolerance” to corruption. Jindal has been charged with illegally transferring the forest department land located in village Zindpur under North District to private individuals in March 2021. The Directorate of Vigilance, prima facie, found “grave misconduct” by the concerned officer, who willfully ignored established ownership of the land with the forest department, upheld time and again by different orders of the Financial Commissioner as well as the High Court and transferred the land illegally on the basis of a much inferior Administration of Justice court (ADJ) for extraneous considerations, informed sources.
Jindal faces the charges of “receiving huge pecuniary benefits” by “abusing his official powers” in illegally and blatantly transferring the land, which is valued worth crores of rupees, it said.
“The matter pertains to the admission of an appeal under Delhi Land reforms (DLR) Act 1954, after 31 years. The appeal was initially being heard by the DM or Collector of the North district, being the appellate authority, but for some reasons, Jindal, the then ADM of the district started hearing matter with effect from February 2021, without any jurisdiction in the matter and thus violating the DLR Act,” it said.
While the DM in his previous hearings, he had already noted that the piece of land belonged to the forest department; the Delhi High Court vide judgement dated 23 January 2012 had also ruled that the land in question is a forest land and was to be maintained green. By ignoring the HC order, Jindal has also committed contempt of the High Court, said sources.
“Taking a strict note of the “grave misconduct”, the LG has recommended the suspension proceedings to MHA, which is the competent authority in the case apart from approving major penalty proceedings against him,” it said.
Sources added that the present case is a part of the “Land Scam” unearthed in the national capital which has already resulted into the suspension of five officers including an ADM, two SDMs, a sub-registrar and a deputy secretary posted in the Delhi Chief Minister’s office. These officers were suspended on the instructions of LG last month.