Land-related crime incidents spiral in Ranchi
DATA Cases pertaining to land deals touched double digit this year while 2017 also saw a dozen of similar incidents
RANCHI: With seven murders and three shootouts, the crime incidents related to land disputes have touched the double digit figures in the state capital in 2018.
On Monday night, land trader Dilip Poddar, 26, was shot thrice from point blank range in Dhurwa. He is battling for life at a private hospital. A day earlier, two bike-borne assailants had shot at another land trader Sami Munda (45) when he had gone to meet a client under Pandra police station limits.
Last month, gangster Sonu Imroj was shot dead on November 4. His father had registered an FIR saying around a dozen people had killed Imroj over dispute in land deal. Police are yet to make any arrest in all the three cases, though two people Mohammad Shakeel alias Karu Lullah and Chamda Chotu surrendered before a city court on November 27 in connection with Imroj’s murder.
After acquiring land in posh localities of Ranchi—Kanke Road, Harmu, Ashok Nagar, Morabadi and others—land mafia dons have now shifted base to the outskirts, police said.
Ranchi senior superintend- ent of police, Anish Gupta said directions were issued to officers-in-charge of all police stations, especially those adjoining the ring road area, to compile data of land dealers with criminal antecedents. He said this was a preventive measure to clip the wings of the land mafia.
Gupta said there were routine alerts being issued by the special branch about the shady land dealers.
“Officer-in-charges of police stations are required to keep a special vigil on any land dispute under their police limits,” he said. In the face of spiraling incidents of crime pertaining to land disputes, police were monitoring each case from the date of receiving complaints, he said.
Police were also ascertaining the identity of land dealers, and those involved in disputes being detained, Gupta said. “If we find any land dealer involved in any criminal activity, Crime Control Act (CCA) will be invoked against them,” he said.
On October 11, police had arrested five armed people, including an engineer, while the group was on its way to allegedly loot a land businessman of around Rs10 lakh.
Police sources said separate factions of land mafia were active in pockets, including Tag-
ore hill, Jagannathpur, Doranda, Tupudana (especially in Dumri, Dashmile, Basargadh and ring road area), Kanke Road and Hindpiri.
Last year in January, the city had hogged the limelight after land grabbers, in connivance with real estate agents, tried to acquire 5.12 acres of land belonging to Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s relatives in Gari locality by producing a fake heir.
Around August, the then SSP Kuldeep Dwiwedi had raised concerns over criminals “heavily investing” in real estate. He had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the shady land deals, conduits and
arms suppliers of the alleged land mafia.
Though 2017 also saw around a dozen of crime incidents pertaining to land deals, police received a major break through after they arrested Bablu Khan alias Enamul Haq of Chandwe in August. He was found in possession of a revolver, carbine, pistol, 196 live cartridges and three magazines. Police said that three land dealers with criminal antecedents had reportedly supplied weapons to a land mafia don for killing two members of rival land mafia in connection with the purchase of 28 acres White House land in Kanke.