HT Correspondent
letters@htlive.com
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the land anomalies in Sonbhadra’s Umbha village on Thursday questioned former district magistrate Ankit Agarwal, who had dismissed appeal of tribal families over their claim on land on which they were farming for past many years.
A senior SIT official said Agarwal was posted as district magistrate of Sonbhadra between February and July 2019. He said Agarwal was removed after the July 17 incident at Umbha village where eleven tribal people were killed in indiscriminate firing by village pradhan Yagya Dutt and his aides over a dispute related to possession of farming land.
The official said Agarwal was questioned about reasons and points on which ground he had dismissed the tribal’s appeal. He said Agarwal got his statement recorded over the entire proceedings during his three hours stay at the SIT office.
He said another former district magistrate of Sonbhadra, Amit Kumar Singh, who was posted before Agarwal, has also been summoned to record his statements over the entire issue.
According to senior police officials, 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. The land was transferred on the report of the then tehsildar one Jai Singh.
{{/usCountry}}According to senior police officials, 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. The land was transferred on the report of the then tehsildar one Jai Singh.
{{/usCountry}}“Ashok Kumar was quizzed for over three hours to understand the conditions under which the land was transferred in the name of wives of IAS officers. His responses in this regard were not very satisfactory,” said a senior police official privy to the matter.