Once known as the ‘first family of Congress’ in Uttar Pradesh, former chief minister late Kamalapati Tripathi’s clan is now facing trouble.
Tripathi’s grandson and former MLC Rajeshpati Tripathi, great-grandson and former MLA Laliteshpati Tripathi and 40 others have been booked for allegedly grabbing 132 acres of land in the name of a cooperative society in Manihan area of Mirzapur district.
A high-level probe into transfer of land to cooperative societies had been launched following the Umbha incident in Sonbhadra in July 2019 where 10 tribals were shot dead in a land dispute.
According to official sources, the revenue department investigated the land transferred to Gopalpur Sanyukta Krishi Sahkari Samiti Limited in Manihan area.
The probe report was produced before the state government which ordered the Mirzapur district magistrate to initiate legal action.
Assistant Commissioner & Assistant Registrar (cooperative) Mirzapur, Mitrasen Verma, while providing details of the FIR lodged at Manihan police station, said, “As the matter belonged to my department, the district magistrate forwarded the report to me after which I lodged a FIR with the Manihan police station.”
Station officer (SO) Manihan, Rajkumar Singh, said, “The FIR was registered under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forging document), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine document) of IPC.”
“Police investigation in this case has been started. It is a very old case. Therefore, collection and verification of documentary evidence is a lengthy process as it has to be collected from many districts. Besides, many related issues are also under investigation,” he said.
The report said that since most of the primary members are not alive, they legal successors should be booked for committing fraud and misleading courts and officials.
The lists of 17 primary members and their 42 legal successors of the samiti was provided to the probe committee by samiti’s secretary Baijnath Singh.
This list contained the names of former minister and Rajeshpati Tripathi’s father late Lokpati Tripathi, Mandavi Prasad Singh and others,” the report stated.
The report further stated that land pooling after formation of the samiti was not as per law while in 1961, when the courts were informed that samiti has 105 members, no land pooling was done by them except for 17 core members.
Membership given to people from other states was also found to be illegal.
“The report also contains that sale of 132.6-acre land to a food park limited by samiti’s deputy chairman Rajeshpati Tripathi in September 2016 and further deal in 2018 was done without seeking permission from the authority concerned and overlooking prescribed rules.
“Terming the managing committee, core members and their successors as guilty, legal action was recommended,” said Verma.
Kamalapati Tripathi served as Uttar Pradesh chief minister from 1971 to 1973.
Source: IANS
