Circle officer held in land forgery case

PATNA: Police on Thursday arrested circle officer of Patna sadar Shamim Akhtar Mazhari for allegedly transferring the land of Kankerbagh power sub-station to one Devendra Kumar, a Danapur resident. Anil Kumar Lal, a revenue clerk, was also arrested by police in connection with the case.
City SP (central) Chandan Kumar Kushwaha said an FIR was lodged against Mazhari with Patrakar Nagar police station on Thursday.
Sources said the plot on which the 50MW power sub-station of South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited was constructed, was purchased by Devendra and the circle officer had allowed the mutation of the plot papers in his favour.
Sources said Mazhari allowed the mutation on the report of the arrested revenue clerk, who had mentioned that the plot was owned by Devendra. Devendra, surprisingly, was also issued an ownership certificate of the plot by the officials.
Sources said the matter first came to light in September 2016 when Devendra reached the sub-station claiming his ownership and tried to bring down the boundary wall of the compound which was originally a Bihar State Housing Board (BSHB) plot allotted to erstwhile Bihar State Electricity Board. The board was later divided into five different firms to look after different set of works.
The matter was kept under blanket for several months. However, officials were tightlipped about the persons who had prepared forged land deed to sell the 69,000 square feet land area to Devendra allegedly in connivance with the land and revenue department officials.