UMBHA CASE: EX-UP GOVT EMPLOYEE’S NAME CLEARED

LUCKNOW : About 54 years after his death, a former state government employee, Shri Krishna Malviya, was named an accused in land irregularities in Sonbhadra district’s Umbha village but his grandson cleared his name and proved to the Special Investigation Team that Malviya had no role in the matter. Umbha is the village where 11 tribals were killed in firing over the same land dispute in July this year. Shri Krishna Malviya died in 1965.

LUCKNOW: About 54 years after his death, a former state government employee, Shri Krishna Malviya, was named an accused in land irregularities in Sonbhadra district’s Umbha village but his grandson cleared his name and proved to the Special Investigation Team that Malviya had no role in the matter.

Umbha is the village where 11 tribals were killed in firing over the same land dispute in July this year. Shri Krishna Malviya died in 1965.

After an initial probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), the FIR lodged in the matter stated that Malviya was the tehsildar, who transferred gram sabha land illegally to Adarsh Krishi Sahkari Samiti in 1955.

But the grandson made it clear that Malviya was never the tehsildar. Instead, he was a treasury accountant who did not have the power to transfer ownership of land and, hence, the charges against him were false, the grandson told the SIT.

The UP Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) initial probe had said Malviya was posted as the tehsildar of Roberstganj and Umbha village was under his jurisdiction at the time.

Deputy inspector general (DIG) of SIT J Ravinder Goud confirmed that the statement of Malviya’s grandson had been recorded.

He said the facts mentioned by Malviya’s grandson made it clear that no person

named Shri Krishna Malviya was posted as tehsildar and, hence, he could not have transferred the gram sabha land to any trust or society. Malviya’s name

would be removed from the FIR, the DIG said.

Moreover, Malviya, who died in 1965, was posted in Sonbhadra as ‘khajanchi’ (treasury accountant) and not as tehsildar, the police officer added.

The DIG said the SIT was now trying to find out who was posted as tehsildar in 1955, but there were no records with the Sonbhadra district administration to provide the required information.

He said the revenue board would be contacted to find out the name of tehsildar at the time of transfer of gram sabha land.

Another SIT official said the gram sabha land was first transferred in the name of Adarsh Krishi Sahkari Samiti in 1955.

Later, it was transferred in the names of wives of two IAS officers in 1989.

He said the land was transferred to one Asha Mishra, wife of Vijay Kumar Agarwal, IAS and Vineeta Sharma aka Kiran Kumari, wife of Ashok Kumar Srivastava, IAS, on the report of the then tehsildar Jai Singh, but it remained in possession of local tribal families, who continued cultivating the land till now.

The same land was later sold to local village pradhan Yagya Dutt in 2017. Eleven tribal people were killed, allegedly in indiscriminate firing by Yagya Dutt and his aides in a dispute over possession of the same farming land on July 17 earlier this year.

The SIT questioned two former district magistrates of Sonbhadra, Ankit Agarwal and Amit Kumar Singh, recently.

On September 11, Ashok Kumar Srivastava, who was subdivisional magistrate (SDM) of Sonbhadra, when the land of a trust was transferred to wives of two IAS officers was also questioned.

On September 5, the team had questioned Manikandan, who is 2016 batch IAS officer, and PCS officer Vijay Prakash Tewari, who had remained posted as sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Ghorawal block at the time of the firing.