Beniwal in land deal trouble
A police probe ordered by a lower court has confirmed allegations of criminal conspiracy and forgery against a cooperative society of which Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal is also a member.
Assistant commissioner of police ( Vaishali Nagar), in his report submitted to the court, has found prima facie case against the cooperative society for falsely staking claim on a government land as its own and seeking cash and developed plots as compensation from the government which acquired it for setting up a residential colony.
The court had ordered a police inquiry into allegations of land grab by 18 people, including gover- nor Kamla Beniwal, on a complaint filed by one Sanjay Agarwal although the case could not be filed against her since she occupies a constitutional post. Agarwal had accused these people of wrongly receiving plots worth approximately ` 400 crore as per market rates as compensation from the Jaipur Development Authority.
According to the police report, facts related to land belonging to the government and its acquisition were deliberately concealed to obtain lease deed for residential plots and concealed facts during acquisition of the land to claim compensa- tion from the JDA.
The BJP had raised this issue in the Assembly as well as in Parliament following her tussle with then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. Immediately after coming to power in December last year, the government seized the encroached land. The matter dates back to 1953, when the state government gave 384- bigha land on 20 years’ lease to the Kisan Samoohik Krishi Sahkari Samiti for agriculture purpose, which was later extended for another 25 years.
Now governor of Gujarat, Ms Beniwal, who was a Congress leader then, became a member of the committee in 1970. After end of lease period in 1978, the land once again returned to the government.