Ranchi, Dec. 3: The former rani of the erstwhile Chainpur state in Palamau, Prafullo Manjri Devi, has moved Jharkhand High Court, seeking protection to save her 4.79 acres of land from the “ugly designs” of the Bhoodan Yagna Committee functioning in the area since 1954.

In her petition, Manjri Devi has alleged that the committee has illegally transferred her ancestral land in Konwai village to a high school management named after one Birendra Kishore Ram.

The petition has been admitted in the court of Justice R.K. Merathia and direction has been sent to the state and parties concerned to file an affidavit within four weeks. The court has also directed to stop any construction work on the land. Manjri Devi said that she had not donated the land to the committee and always paid the land rent to the government.

She has annexed the rent receipt of 2001-02 with the petition. Manjri Devi has said that she got to know about the illegal transfer of land when she sent her people to pay the land rent for 2002-03 in the circle office. The person returned without doing the job. She has said that her land was illegally transferred on July 12 this year by the order of the Daltonaganj circle officer.