Saturday, August 15, 2015

Fact-finding Report on “illegal accumulation of huge landed property” by Satish Gajbhiye, IPS Officer




Fact-finding Report on “illegal accumulation of huge landed property” by Satish Gajbhiye, IPS Officer in Gop Block of Puri district, Odisha

In the midst  of organising rally  and demonstration on 10.8.15 at lower PMG, Bhubaneswar   demanding arrest  of Satish Gajbhiye, SP, Kendrapara for  his order of resorting lathi charge, mercilessly  beating up the common people, journalist  and ruthless colonial behaviour to the lawyers in Kendrapara district  who were  demonstrating against  controversial Godman Baba Sarathi, we received information from unidentified  sources  that    Sri Satish Gajbhiye, IPS officer in name of his wife Ranjana Gajbhiye had purchased huge landed property  in Gop block of Puri district. Immediately, it was thought of to send   a Fact-finding team of Civil Society Groups to   the spot to ascertain fact about it. It  deserves  to be mentioned here that few months back ,  Sri Satish Gajbhiye was interrogated  by CBI  for  his alleged  link with  fraud Chit Fund Operators  in the State. The Fact-finding Team visited twice to Gop Block on 11.8.15 and 13.8.15 to collect information about his landed property and huge investment of crores of rupees for fishery in that area. The Team members were

1.      Sri Pradip Pradhan, State Convener, Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan
2.      Sri Sudhir  Mohanty, Advocate, Odisha High Court
3.      Sri Pratap Sahu, Basti Surakhya Sangharash Samiti
4.      Sri Ashok Mallik, State President, NACDOR, New Delhi
5.      Sri Ashok Das, Samajik Nyaya Andolan
6.      Sri Sanjay Sahu, Social Activist
7.      Sri Satya Sundar Sahu


  Visit on 11.8.15
The Team  reached  at 12.30  in Gop block  and rushed to  the spot  Bada Kiapala Mouza  where  Sri Gajbhiye  had  purchased the land. This place is around 65 km from Bhubaneswar, 25 km from Nimapara block under Puri district. Prior to visit to the spot, the Team had collected  the copy of sale deed   from the people and found that  huge land  had been purchased from the families of Dalit Caste and General Caste of Borimunda, Koruala and Alana village of  Baulanga Gram Panchayat.   The team members walked on approached road   to reach at the spot which is around one km from Alana village. The Team noticed huge excavation work going on for digging pond covering around 90 acres of land.  It took two hours to visit the entire land under the fishery project. Five no. of 10 HP big Motors have been installed fitting with big Generator to draw water from river Kadua  and pump it to the pond.   After physical inspection, the team   interacted with the villagers and the people who have sold the land to Satish Gajbhiye. It was found that more than 35 acres of agriculture land had been purchased by him in name of his wife Ranjana Gajbhiye. They also said that they had not seen Ranjan Gajbhiye while selling and signing sale deed at the office of Sub-Registrar, Gop. Two Dalals ( brokers) who are linked with Chit Fund Operators Sri Kailash Pradhan of Chadheigan village of Nagpur Panchayat and Sri Dillip Nayak of Chhanijang   had executed all the works including giving money against the cost of the land on behalf of Ranjan Gajbhiye. The people who have sold the land are as follows.

Sl.No
Name of Gram Panchayat
Name of village
Name of the  seller  of Land 
Caste
Quantity of land sold in Ac ( Approx.)
1
Baulang
Koruala
Baistnab Behera
Scheduled Caste
1 AC
2
Do
Do
Gobardhan  Kandi
DO
1 Ac
3
Do
Do
Lokanath Behera
DO
1 Ac
4
Do
DO
Duba Jena
DO
1 Ac
5
Do
Do
Braja Sahu
General Caste
1 Ac
6
Do
Do
Bhramar Biswal
Do
1 Ac
7
Do
Do
Jata Kuanr
Do
1 Ac
8
Do
Do
Bansidhar Lenka
Do
1 Ac
9
Do
Do
Nabaghana Lenka
Do
1 Ac
10
Do
Do
Madhu Kuanr
Do
1 Ac
11
Do
Do
Jahan Biswal
Do
1 Ac
12
Do
Do
Madhab Pradhan
Do
1 Ac
13
Do
Do
Dukhishyam Parida
Do
1 AC
14
Do
Do
Linga Kuanr
Do
1 Ac
15
Do
Do
Rabi Sahu
Do
1 Ac
16
Do
Alana
Naran Dalei
DO
0.47 Ac
17
Do
Do
Gandharba Pradhan
Do
1.20 Ac
19
Do
Do
Charan Dalei
Do
0.39 Ac
20
Do
Do
Brajabandhu Dalei
Do
0.39 Ac
21
Do
Do
Katha dalei
Do
0.39 Ac
22
Do
Do
Ghana Muduli
Do
0.16 Ac
23
Do
Do
Banamali Patra
Do
1.11 Ac
24
Do
Do
Baidhar Dalei
Do
3 Ac
25
Do
Do
Padma Ch. Murundi
Brahmanand Murudi
Bishu h. Murundi
Do
2.5 Ac
26
Do
Borimunda
Hari Mallik
Scheduled caste
  information could not be obtained  due to his absence
27
Do
Do
Kari Mallik
Do
Do
28
Do
Do
Nari  Mallik
Do
Do
29
Do
Do
Bhramarbar Mallik
Do
Do

 Besides that it was also found that  he had also illegally  acquired  and encroached  more than 40 acres  of  Gochar  and  Anabadi land and river bed  of Kadua river and engaged  dalals  for  construction of number of big ponds for fishery  which is going on since 2013.  The rough estimate for investment into magnitude  of  work  undertaken  for  digging pond  in around 100 acres  of  land  will be more  than  30 to 40 crores.  Astonishingly, Sri Gajbhiye  has  not  disclosed  the information  about  this property  in  his Property Statement  submitted  to Govt. of India .

Visit on 13.8.15

 The Team visited office of Tahasildar of Gop and tried to obtain the map of Badakiapala Mouza in which Sri Satish GajBhiye  has purchased the land. Despite hard effort, the Team members could not obtain the Map and left the place for meeting with the villagers of Alana village and the location of the land.  Sri kamalakant  Kuanr  of Koruala village and Siba Dalei  of  Alana village  enlightened   the team about  history  of the  land  situation  in that area.   That area is basically water logged area.  In 2002-03, the State Govt. set up a Lift Irrigation Unit under KFW project with proper electricity connection. There was huge pipe line connected to different areas for supply of water to agricultural field.  It was estimated that this L.I project would irrigate 1000 Acres of land of five villages. But actually it was irrigating 500 acres of land. This L.I. Point became defunct since 2008-09 due to various reasons like theft of electricity weir, pump etc. Though the villagers lodged complaint, the administration did not take any steps to repair it.  The Team also came to know that there was conspiracy by the powerful people to make it defunct. In the absence of irrigation facility, the agricultural land remained fallow and unusable. This provided golden opportunity to the land grabbers or land mafia like Satish Gajbhiye to motivate the people to sell the land at better and reasonable price. The Land mafias took a lot of efforts to motivate the people and got succeeded. The poor people who could not get any benefit from fallow land sold their land to Land Mafias. They were also assured to get other benefits when the project will be set up and functional on their land.

From 2012 onwards, Sri Satish Gajbhiye started his operation of digging huge pond for fishing cultivation with an estimated cost of more than 30 to 40 crores rupees.  When the project got started,    the installed pipelines were destroyed and taken away from that area.  The huge construction of  pond  has blocked  the natural flow of water  causing further water logging  in the area which has resulted  in loss of paddy  in 500 acres of  land  in the last year. Now the few common questions come to mind of the Team which needs to be enquired. 

a.      How Sri Gajbhiye    got such huge money for investment for fishery and its source?
b.   How he got contact with land brokers of this area to purchase land?
c.    Has he partnered with different people for this project? If yes, who are they and how he got introduced with them.
d.   Has he got money from fraud Chit Fund Operators? If yes, who are they?
e.    Has he   got any money from Baba sarathi of Kendrapara ?
f.     Why did Sri Gajbhiye purchase land in the name of his wife?

It is needless to mention here that few months back, CBI had interrogated Sri Satish Gajbhiye, IPS officer   in connection with his link with   fraud Chit Fund Operators. But the CBI had not taken any steps to arrest him. It may be that CBI might have not got proper evidence in this matter. 

Our Recommendation and Follow up Action

1.   As the CBI  had interrogated  Sri Gajbhiye  for his link with Chit Fund Companies, it  should be handed over to CBI  for  further  investigation into  huge investment made  for fishery  in Gop Block.
2.   The State Govt. should enquire into details of land purchased and illegally grabbed by Sri Gajbhiye and put it in public domain.
3.   The State Govt. should disclose the name of the people involved in this land scam.
4.   The State Govt. should make thorough investigation about similar kind of land grabbing  in these areas like Gop, Astarang, Brahmagiri  etc.

After  fact-finding visit, the Team  has submitted petition  to  SP, CBI   to reopen the file  of Sri Satish  Gajbhiye, as he has accumulated huge money  and invested  for  fishery  through Chit Fund Operators.


Report prepared by
Pradip Pradhan                                                      
RTI Activist                                                 
State Convener
Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan
Plot No-D-27, Maître Vihar
Post-Rail Vihar, Bhubaneswar-23
M-9937843482

No comments:

Post a Comment