The city police have recently tightened its grip on land grabbers and various drives were conducted against such perpetrators across the city.
The West Police District arrested 5 persons in 4 separate cases of land grabbing. In one case, the Azara Circle Officer was the complainant where the accused land grabbers had occupied a plot of government land in Pamohi.
The other cases were filed by private land owners. Gorchuk police have arrested five persons namely, Ratneswar Boro, Biswajit Dekamaji, Martin Daimary, Shanti Singh and Abdul Awal.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of West Police District, Bhanwar Lal said, “The number of land grabbing cases has decreased now but there are many pending land grabbing cases.”
Lal revealed that the police are intensifying their drive against all the land grabbers and all the old and unsolved land grabbing cases are being minutely investigated.
Even the Central Police District arrested four persons in a land grabbing case. Dayal Dey, Mrinal Kanti Mallik, Sukhpal Majumdar and Dullu Dey were arrested by Noonmati police for illegally encroaching on a plot of land of one Pulin Chandra Das. In this connection, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of Noonmati, Purabi Mazumdar said, “The case was registered two years ago but the reports from the circle office finally reached last week.” After getting the reports it was confirmed that the land belonged to Pulin Chandra Das and accordingly the accused land grabbers were arrested.
A police source said that it takes very long to solve land grabbing cases, adding that the circle office reports are vital to solve such cases. However, the circle offices apparently delay a fair bit in sending such reports.
Grabbers have many modes of operation
There is no single pattern by which crimes like land grabbing take place. Police informed that there are several modus operandi which the perpetrators adopt.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), West Police District, Bhanwar Lal said, “Even the land owners are under our scanner as in many cases the same plot of land is sold and re-sold to multiple buyers.”
In some cases, the sale deed is prepared, power of attorney is given to the buyer but the mutation process is not completed. Later fake sale deeds and other papers are created and the land is encroached upon forcefully.
In many cases the grabbers target land owners who are not well connected socially or with the authorities or live outside Guwahati. There is a nexus of grabbers which is well connected and have the money and muscle power to grab lands of owners who are financially weak.
The government lands are mostly encroached by the land grabbing gangs who thereafter rent out the land to slum dwellers and other labour class migrants coming to the city.
A senior police official said, “Religion is also used for grabbing government land.” People construct places of worship or other religious establishments on government lands. Later it becomes difficult for the authorities to evict the people from such lands.
A senior police official said, “Land grabbing cases are very complicated to solve and the onus mostly is on the circle offices and the district administration.”
Officials of circle offices under police scanner
As the onus is mostly on the circle office and with the city police tightening its grip on land grabbers, even the officials working in the circle offices are under police scanner.
Talking about the nexus of the land grabbers with the officials in the circle office, a senior police officer said, “It cannot be ruled out.”
While investigating the land grabbing cases, the police have to write to the circle office to get the report to find out who exactly the owner of the disputed land is. In many cases the circle office responds very late, revealed a police source.
The officer said, “We have to keep sending repeated reminders to get the report to know who exactly the owner is.”
In many cases, the circle officer himself is unaware about grabbing cases because the police report request reaches the officer very late. The mondols do not allow the report request to reach the circle officer, said a senior police officer. The mondols get transferred and only then the report request is usually addressed, said another police source.
It was also revealed by a district administration source that many mondols have hired personal assistants at their own costs. The new deputy commissioner of Kamrup (Metro), Virendra Mittal, said that no nexus in circle offices will exist anymore. To ensure that such malpractices come to an end, he has started visiting the circle offices every week after joining to start with.
A highly placed source in district administration said, “Land grabbing cases were reported in the past but now there will be none because all land related information is preserved online.”
The source revealed that in the past there might have been a nexus but now there can’t be any.
The police however have started investigating old cases and all circle office officials are under scanner. Interestingly, till date, none of such officials have been arrested.