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Yogi blames Cong for ‘shielding land mafia’

LUCKNOW:In a political twist to the Sonbhadra massacre, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today squarely blamed the Congress for the festering land dispute resulting in the killing of 10 Gonds and injuries to two dozen of them.

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Tribune News Service

Lucknow, July 19

In a political twist to the Sonbhadra massacre, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today squarely blamed the Congress for the festering land dispute resulting in the killing of 10 Gonds and injuries to two dozen of them.

In a statement on the floor of the House and later at a press conference, Yogi said the genesis of land dispute went back to 1955 when the Congress was in power. “The Congress governments in the past have provided protection to land mafias and the Sonebhadra incident is an example of that,” he alleged.

He said a report on the incident had been submitted by the Vindhayachal Divisional Commissioner and Varanasi ADG, who jointly probed the case. According to the report, the matter had been pending since 1955 and several cases were pending in the revenue court and criminal courts.

The victims had been cultivating the disputed land for a long time but their names did not figure in the revenue records. They were also paying land revenue to a person who had been collecting on behalf of the IAS officer who had the papers of the land till 2017 when they sold it off to gram pradhan Yagya Dutt.

Yogi said that on December 17, 1955, the tehsildar of Umbha and Saphi villages had transferred 125 bighas to Adarsh Cooperative Society owned by an IAS officer of Bihar cadre, Prabhat Mishra, who had also been the Mirzapur DM. Later in 1989, Mishra transferred the land to his wife and daughter. 

Accusing the Congress government, which was in power during the time, for allowing the irregular transfer of land first to a society and then to individuals, Yogi said the party had always protected land mafias. It was in 2017 that the IAS officer’s wife sold the land to the gram pradhan as she had failed to take its possession as the Gonds had continued tilling the land. 

The CM said he had set up committees to probe the truth behind the revenue records and another one to probe the criminal aspect of the incident. He said local police and revenue officials had been suspended.

SDM, 4 cops suspended

The CM said the SDM and four police officials, including circle officer,  were suspended and 29 persons have been arrested. PTI

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