BJP Legislature Party Leader and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi has written to Chief Minister Hemant Soren, seeking the latter’s intervention and a probe into an alleged land scam in Deoghar.
Giving details, Marandi has written, “The Charushila Trust, Deoghar was a trust of public importance with the crux of all its work and proprietal holdings in Deoghar (Present day Jharkhand). The Supreme Court in the year 1959 declared the said trust as a public trust with its land to be used to build a hospital, in conjunction with the wishes of the trustees. The Charushila Trust, however, soon fell into disarray and its management was severely affected by a lack of leadership, causing its proprietal holdings to be vulnerable to the local land mafias.”
“The Charushila Trust was disbanded in the year 1987 and Mr. Mitra was appointed as the receiver by the High Court of West Bengal .It is further attested that an alleged trustee of the above mentioned trust, Debi Prasanna Ghosh, had four daughters who all sold Charu Nibas (part of the trust property) to Alok Kumar Satnaliwala in the year 2004. This said transaction was blatantly illegal and contrary to the 1959 judgement of the Supreme Court. Pinaki Ghosh was appointed as the receiver of the trust on 06/09/2017 and had objected to the sale deed executed on 18/09/2004 and all other sale deeds signed forthwith of the trust property in favour of Satnaliwala. Ghosh had made detailed complaints in 2020 and in 2022 over the irregularities in the trust and the apparent collusion of the administration in aiding the blatant disregard of numerous legislations and judgements of the Supreme Court of India,” he stated.
The BJP leader further said, “However, no action was taken on the said complaints. The primary issue in the ‘fraudulent’ actions of the individuals acting as trustees was the collusion of the district administration to issue LPCs to lands which were barred from being sold by the Courts. This action of the District Administration reeks of corruption and collusion with a criminal conspiracy to profit off a public trust by various interested parties. In the year 2021, the District Administration of Deoghar (through District Collector Deoghar), who had already aided the Satnaliwala family to sell the public trust land in 2020 and 2021, committed another grave case of conspiracy to allegedly profit economically.”
“An eight acre land, protected under the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act (SPT Act), was sold to the Satnaliwala Family in the year 2021. The said piece of land in Janakpur Mauza was non-saleable and the C.O and the S.D.O Deoghar had projected their objections to the District Collector. However, despite the objections of these Ld. Senior Officers, the District Collector, in a case of sheer negligence and contempt, provided a LPC to the Satnaliwala family aiding them in their pursuit to buy the said piece of land. The above mentioned cases of either sheer negligence or criminal conspiracy to profit economically should be investigated to determine all the players in this land scam that has occurred in contravention of numerous legislations and judgements of the Supreme Court. A Civil servant is supposed to be a neutral individual, tasked with the responsibility to apply legislations, directives, and judgements without bias or opportunism. This case defies all that a civil servant stands for and has the potential to shake the trust society has in a civil servant. I request your goodself to provide the harshest of punishment to all individuals involved in the ‘land scam’ and to punish them in context of the broader implications this has on society,” he said.