By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, August 1: Owning a plot of land in Guwahati? Beware of land grabbers! They are on the prowl in the city. They can sell your land to many parties when you are in a catp. They can forge everything, even your thumb impression.
Joydeep Ghosh today unfolded the tale of a racket of an active land grabbers who made desperate attempts to grab a four-bigha plot of land owned by Jayanta Gosh and his aunt Manju Gosh near Lokhra Chariali. Joydeep is the brother of one of the two owners of the land, Jayanta Gosh.
Addressing the press here today, Joydeep said: “Jayanta Gosh and Manju Gosh have been in the possession of the land since 1983 when they purchased it from one Bi Mikir. It’s a miyadi patta land worth over Rs 30 crore at present.”
“Jayanta Gosh and Manju Gosh kept Pradip Thapa as the caretaker of the land. One day in 2013, Thapa told the two land owners that Swap Dutta Hazarika, wife of DFO Jibanda Hazarika, went to the plot of land and dug out some holes to erect some posts there. She also told Thapa that she had purchased the land,” Joydeep said, and added: “That prompted Jayanta and his aunt rush to Dispur Revenue Circle office and found that their ownership over the land was still intact. Their sixth sense, however, made them rush to the Kamrup (M) Sub-Registrar Office where they came to know their plot of land had been sold illegally twice -- both are under-the-table deals. On December 21, 2009 a sale deed was made in the me of one Sukumal Sinha with the help of lawyer Bhaskar Das, the Sub-Registrar and some others under Bandabasti No. 149228/2009. The same racket sold the land again to Swap Dutta Hazarika on June 21, 2010 through another sale deed (Bandabasti No. 3706/2010. The two land owners soon filed a case (485/2013) against lawyer Bhaskar Das, Sukumal Sinha and Swap Dutta in the Dewani court. Without washing their hands of their, they also lodged an FIR before the Kamrup (M) district SP. Based on the FIR, the Panbazar police station registered a case (120/2015) under IPC 120 (B)/420/468. The police did grill Sukumal Sinha, Bhaskar Das and Swap Dutta Hazarika but stop short of arresting them. The trio got anticipatory bail from the court.”
On June 30, Joydeep said, the Gauhati High Court heard the case and said that the trio -- Sukumal Sinha, lawyer Bhaskar Das and Swap Dutta Hazarika -- took a pan shop vendor, made her impersote Manju Ghosh before the Sub-Registrar office where her thumb impression was taken and the sale deeds were made. Forensic laboratory tests have revealed that the thumb impressions in the sale deeds are not that of Manju Gosh. The High Court vacated the anticipatory bail obtained by the trio, and the case will be heard on August 6 in the session court.”
Joydeep said that the story of the land grabbers’ racket has been unfolded in the interest of land owners in the city so that they can take preventive measures if and when they face similar situations.