Ranchi: A hearing was held in the High Court on a public interest litigation filed regarding the investigation of a land-compensation scam of three thousand crores allegedly during the land acquisition for NTPC in Hazaribagh. During the hearing, advocates Abhishek Krishna Gupta and Rahul Mishra of the applicant Mantu Soni put before the court the matter of not filing the reply by the CBI and the state government.
On the other hand, on behalf of the ED, advocate Amit Das told the court that a preliminary inquiry has been started by the ED. After hearing both the sides, the court has directed the CBI and the state government to reply within two weeks. The matter was heard in the division bench of High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra and Justice Anand Sen.
In the year 2016, on the recommendation of the then Deputy Commissioner Mukesh Kumar, the state government constituted a three-member SIT team headed by retired IAS officer Devashish Gupta after land-compensation irregularities came to light in Hazaribagh. The SIT team had informed the state government in its report about land compensation scam worth Rs 3000 crore and distribution of Rs 300 crore compensation.
According to the applicant, so far correspondence has been made only to the Managing Director of NTPC and Hazaribagh Deputy Commissioner in the name of action by the State Government. At the same time, the report of the SIT headed by Devashish Gupta has not been made public at present.
According to the information, in the report, compensation was distributed by making fake documents of government non-majrua special-common land, land for public use, cremation ground, school, ground by many influential people.