Members of the Buksa tribe in Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar have accused a BJP MLA and his son of fraudulently grabbing their land and illegally selling it to a third party.
Nanhi Devi, a Buksa woman from Semalpur, sat on a dharna on Saturday along with her fellow villagers to reclaim her land, which she claimed had been taken over and sold by Gadarpur BJP MLA Arvind Pandey and his son Atul Pandey.
Rules prohibit the sale of land owned by tribals without special permission from the government.
“Atul Pandey manipulated the documents and sold my land to Gurvindar Singh for ₹28 lakh, who then sold it to Makkan Singh," Nanhi Devi alleged.
The villagers had on Friday organised a dharna at the office of the local sub-divisional magistrate, Amrita Sharma, and submitted a memorandum seeking the cancellation of the deal, the return of the land to Nanhi Devi, and an inquiry into how many such plots the MLA or his son had sold illegally.
“We are conducting an inquiry into the complaint,” said Kaustubh Mishra, additional district magistrate of Uddham Singh Nagar.
Satish Chugh, Nagar Panchayat president of Gularbhoj in the district, said: “Atul Pandey mentioned his name as Atul Kumar and his lawmaker father’s name as Arvind Kumar to commit this fraud, but openly came forward to justify their act.”
Chugh said Gurvindar Singh and Makkan Singh were also angry with the MLA and were demanding their money back. They didn't know that the son of the BJP MLA was not the real owner of the land.
“We voted for the BJP, and now the BJP leaders are grabbing our land and selling it illegally. At least a dozen members of my community are their victims,” Nanhi Devi said.
Pratap Singh Chauhan, a local tehsildar, said: "We have been probing the complaints of Nanhi Devi, Sanju Kumar and Mangal Singh. Initial inquiry suggests that Atul Kumar Pandey used fake documents to grab the land. Pandey claimed he was the owner of the land for the last 50 years, but he is only 32 years old. We have served him a notice and sought his reply.”
A portion of the land allegedly sold by Pandey belonged to Sanju Kumar and Mangal Singh.
“The Assembly election is due in early 2027, so my rivals are using different means to malign me. We have not committed any fraud,” Arvind Pandey said.
The Buksas are Scheduled Tribes who live in the Terai region of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. They are mainly engaged in farming and depend on forest resources for their daily needs. Usually, they don't approach the administration and get their issues resolved by their own councils called Takht. They worship Hindu deities, primarily Shiva and Chamunda Devi.