Chargesheet submitted in land bungling case

BHUBANESWAR: The Crime Branch on Friday submitted chargesheet against the former Oath Commissioner of Board of Revenue and another accused in the land bungling in Jajpur’s Sukinda tehsil.The duo had adopted an innovative approach to steal government land by borrowing a case number of a land litigation and faked a judgement.Nikunja Kishore Mohanty, the former Board of Revenue official, was arrested by on November 21 while the main accused SS Patnaik was held five days earlier. The duo have been slapped charges under 468/471 and 109 of Indian Penal Code.Mohanty, during his tenure as Oath Commissioner of Board of Revenue, had helped forge official document to aid Patnaik sell the Government land.By taking advantage of hundreds of revision petitions filed before the Board of Revenue, Patnaik had prepared a document with a case number which was originally belonged to another litigation. Using the number, he had prepared a judgement for the government land in question with the verdict in his favour although it was all fake.The Crime Branch had found that Mohanty had provided the number and helped the whole process of forgery by signing the covering letter which was later produced before the tehsildar in Sukinda by Patnaik. Patnaik had then got the land mutation in his name.The Crime Branch took over the investigation in 2007 when the Board of Revenue lodged an FIR.