Hazaribagh: The Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested Vijay Pratap Singh in connection with the Hazaribagh khasmahal land scam. He was taken into custody from Hazaribagh, marking the third arrest in the case.
Earlier, suspended IAS officer Vinay Choubey, already in jail over the liquor scam, and former khasmahal officer Vinod Chandra Jha had been arrested.
The ACB’s preliminary inquiry revealed major irregularities in the handling of about 2.75 acres of khasmahal land originally leased to a trust in 1948 for 30 years. The lease was renewed in 1978 until 2008, but between 2008 and 2010, the land was falsely presented as government property and illegally allotted to 23 private individuals.
Investigators found that during the renewal process, Vinod Chandra Jha deliberately removed the term “trust sevayat” from official documents to portray the land as state-owned and enable its unlawful transfer. According to legal provisions, trust land cannot be transferred to any third party, yet the conspiracy allowed the construction of several multi-storey commercial buildings on the disputed property.