LUCKNOW: A high-powered three-member probe panel set up by CM Yogi Adityanath after the Sonbhadra incident hit its first roadblock after discovering that papers related to the unlawful transfer of gram panchayat land to a society in 1955 missing from the district revenue office.The probe panel headed by the additional chief secretary (revenue) is looking at the land deals which culminated in the massacre in Umbha village in Sonbhadra district.
On Saturday, Adityanath had suggested the genesis of the land dispute was laid in 1955, during the Congress rule.The panel, which has to submit its report within 10 days, was asked to probe how 600 bighas of gram sabha land in Umbha, Sapai and Murtiya was transferred first to Adarsh Krishi Kalyan Society in 1955 and sold to the village head of Umbha Yagya Dutt Bhurtiya.
According to sources, the land belonged to Anand Brahm Saha, the Raja of Badhaar. After the abolition of the Zamindari system, the land was marked as barren in revenue records and transferred as gram sabha land to be cultivated by Gond tribals.
The aforementioned society was formed by Bihar cadre IAS officer Prabhat Kumar Mishra, who had appointed his father-in-law Maheshwari Prasad Sinha from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, as its president, and his daughter Vinita the manager and wife Asha a office bearer.
Sources said at least 463 bighas were transferred to the society in 1955. After Sinha’s death, around 200 bighas was transferred to Asha Mishra and Vinita in 1989. They then sold 144 bighas to Yagya Dutt Bhurtiya for `2 crore in 2017.Sources said the registration of the society was illegal as the UP Society Act stipulates that a person should be the domicile of UP to get a society registered.