A senior officer has indicted civil and police officers in Bhojpur for lapses in taking action against people who had encroached upon government land and subsequently sold them off to different individuals.

The government assigned inspector-general (Patna zone) Nayyar Hasnain Khan the task to conduct an investigation into the "land scam" following residents meeting the chief minister in January this year.

In his report submitted couple of months ago to senior government officials, including Patna divisional commissioner Anand Kishor, Khan has said laxity on the part of the Bhojpur district authorities has led to the loss of over 181 decimal (around 60 cottahs) of government land in Ara, the district headquarters town of Bhojpur, in the past year.

The Telegraph accessed the report on Friday.

Inspector-general (IG), Patna zone, Khan revealed in the report that the ownership of the Kaishar-e-Hind land (government land), which was in the possession of the Mounted Military Police headquartered in Ara, had been transferred to different individuals in alleged connivance with officials posted at the sub-registrar office and the circle office concerned in Bhojpur district.

The report - sent to the principal secretary (home), director-general of police, deputy inspector-general (Shahabad range), Bhojpur district magistrate and Bhojpur superintendent of police (SP) on May 26 this year - recommends cancellation of all 16 registered deeds and lodging of an FIR against persons involved in the scam.

Khan expressed his strong displeasure over delay in initiating action against the accused.

"I fail to understand why action against the accused had been delayed," he stated in the report. "There is an urgent need to fix the responsibility of the erring officials and take stern disciplinary action against them."

The report has revealed that government land was transferred in the name of different individuals despite objection raised by an additional collector posted in Ara. The documents Khan obtained showed that the plot was sold for Rs 13.66 crore and the beneficiaries included Lallu Singh, Anku, Anshu, Meena Singh and Ajay Kumar - all residents of Bhojpur.

The documents point out that the ownership of the land had been transferred between October 2016 and January 2017. But top officials in the district purportedly did not pay heed to numerous complaints related to the sale of government land to individuals through power of attorney.

Some residents met chief minister Nitish Kumar during his visit to the district headquarters in January this year, after allegedly not been heard by the local officials, and he asked the zonal IG to conduct a detailed investigation into the matter and submit a report.

Namrata Singh and Manju Singh, residents of Babu Bazar and Hardiya in Bhojpur district, respectively, sold 16 plots of government land, the report said. The Mounted Military Police was set up in Ara in 1919 to keep tabs on the movement of criminals in the riverine belt of the district.

After being assigned the investigation duty in January Khan sought a report from Bhojpur SP Kshatranil Singh in February in which the officer also confirmed sale of government land to individuals on the basis of power of attorney, and pointed at gross irregularities in the transfer of ownership.

This is not an isolated case. Recently, a circle officer and another government employee were arrested from Patna on the charge of illegal transfer of government land to a land mafia. The police have launched a hunt for the land reform deputy collector.