Rautahat, January 18

In yet another land mafia case, it had been found that the District Land Revenue Office Rautahat halted the transaction of three bigaha land belonging to an individual on the basis of forged documents.

It has been disclosed that the land mafia used the letter pads of the non-existent Jagriti Multiple Investment Cooperative Private Limited and made a request to block the three bigaha land registered in the name of Shail Jha of Matsari VDC.

The truth came to light when the landlady’s husband Birendra Mishra went to the land revenue office after learning that the revenue office had blocked land transaction on Monday. On the basis of the forged papers, the cooperative wrote a letter to the revenue office requesting the latter to block the land transaction as Shail had demanded a loan amount of Rs 2.5 million for business purpose on January 13. On the basis of the letter, the revenue office had blocked the transaction without verification.

Mishra clarified that they had not initiated the process of taking loan from any cooperative. After Mishra learned about the blocked transaction, he had reached the revenue office yesterday for clarification. As the staffers were reluctant to answer, he sought the help of journalists to press the office to disclose the forged letter.

Irate Birendra accused that the land revenue office might have blocked the land transaction in cahoots with land revenue office staffers.

When Birandra verified the cooperative at District Cooperative Division Office, he came to know that Jagriti Multiple Investment Cooperative did not exist. Birandra said some staffers at the land revenue office requested him not to go to the media and the issue would be solved by tomorrow.

Acting land revenue office Chief Chandra Bahadur Bhandari said his staffers might have blocked the land transaction on the basis of the letter sent by the cooperative. Bhandari pledged an investigation into the incident. “We have requested the cooperative office to look into the issue.”