Karnal dera head asks Haryana CM to shift additional deputy commissioner indicted in inquiry

KARNAL: Head of Dera Baba Bhagwan Dass Giri in Nigdhu Pastana near Karnal has asked government that officials named in the special investigation team report as "required to be arrested" were still in key positions in the district and were hampering investigation. An additional deputy commissioner and nine other officials had been indicted by an inquiry report into the alleged irregularities in allotment of the dera's land.
SIT probing allegations of irregularities in a Haryana government scheme meant to rehabilitate nomads and underprivileged in the district has uncovered instances of land allotted to children, some of them only seven years old, and people who already owned land. A report by the Karnal police had indicated ten senior officials of the administration for their involvement allotment of surplus land of a dera to ineligible beneficiaries in said village. The matter had been pending in the Punjab and Haryana high court for the past eight years. Mahant of the dera had reported the matter to police in which he had alleged that Karnal officials had given surplus land of the dera to some persons in the name of nomads and later they sold it to relatives belong to upper caste and landlords, according to SIT.
Mahant Mahadev Giri had alleged that according to revenue department rules, surplus land of the dera could to be allotted only to villagers from reserved category. However, officials took huge bribes and got fake ration cards issued and allotted 750 acres to the land mafia, he alleged. The dera was allotted 39 acres of the total land which stood in its name. After HC directed Karnal police to conduct an inquiry into the matter, superintendent of police filed a status report in which it was mentioned that an FIR had been lodged at Butana police station and investigation was on. Mahant Giri has written to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar lamenting that ADC, who has been indicted by the police chief, was still working in the district at a senior post and could affect ongoing investigation.