Assam: CBI takes up land-grab case involving ex- DGP
New Delhi: A land-grabbing case in Guwahati, a kidnapped 75-year-old caretaker and several petitions to the High Court later, the Central Bureau of Investigation has finally registered five separate FIRs in a nearly 10-year-old land-grab case allegedly implicating former DGP of Assam Police, Khagen Sarma and his wife Bandana Sarma.
The CBI's Special Crime Branch in Kolkata took over the case on orders of the Gauhati High Court, which handed over the case to the cental agency, expressing concern that the state police in Assam had not conducted a proper investigation in the matter.
According to CBI documents, several complaints of land grabbing were filed at the Paltan Bazaar police station with respect to a plot of land near Paban Kata in Guwahati, belonging to one Magni Devi Jain. The complaints were filed, alleging that Inder Singh Dell, the caretaker of the plot was receiving calls from unknown persons claiming that they had purchased the land and threatening them to vacate it. It was also alleged that these unknown people had forged documents relating to the plot of land.
Eventually, complaints were also filed by Inder's son, Paramjit, saying that his father, who was residing at the plot of land, was receiving life-threatening calls from people claiming that they had purchased the land. The accused persons had also at one point changed the locks of the main gate and restricting the Dells movements.
In fact, one of the CBI's FIRs mentions that the accused people had even forged a power of attorney deed in the name of Magni Devi, the owner of the plot, and sold it to different entities. The case snowballed when Inder's son finally saw that his father was kidnapped by three people in Maruti Van on the night of April 7, 2010. In fact, Paramjit said that one person called Saikia had come to the property earlier in the day and threatened them with "dire consequences" if they did not vacate the premises.
In a chargesheet filed by local police in 2014, former Assam DGP, Khagen Sarma and his wife Bandana Sarma were named as accused in the land-grab case.
