Police try to control the mob at Jagdeo Path in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, April 6: Builders with dubious credentials and those engaged in forcible grabbing of land are on the radar of Bihar police.

The police are preparing a list of builders with criminal antecedents and also contemplating stern action against those charged with forcible grabbing of land in prime locations in important towns and cities, particularly in Patna.

Taking strong exception to the manner in which a builder tried to erect a boundary wall on the plot being used as a burial ground near Jagdeo Path on Bailey Road, director-general of police (DGP) Neel Mani has issued instructions to the superintendents of police to prepare a list of builders with questionable credentials.

“We know that the records of land are not available at the police stations. The police officers have (therefore) been asked to keep a close watch on the activities of builders with criminal background. Their illegal activities create law and order problems for the police who have otherwise very little hand in land-related affairs,” the DGP said.

He said efforts were on to identify people who had connived with such builders to get disputed land registered. “Action will also be taken against those who have connived with builders to develop multi-storeyed buildings on the disputed land,” Neel Mani said, adding that the role of the department employees concerned in such matters would also be probed.

Referring to the Jagdeo Path incident, which left one person dead and two others, including a minor, injured, Neel Mani said the Patna senior superintendent of police had been asked to identity the main conspirators and book them at the earliest. “It is also being probed how the ownership of the land, which was used as a burial ground by a particular community, was transferred to the builder,” he told The Telegraph.

The DGP said instructions had been issued to senior cops to take exemplary action against the guilty. “Punitive action against the policemen would be taken. The station house officer of the Airport police station, under whose jurisdiction the area falls, has been put under suspension,” he said.

Sources in the police (home) department said there were at least 20 builders in Patna alone who had been charged with constructing multi-storeyed buildings on disputed plots of land. “Such builders are thriving due to their proximity to the powers-that-be,” said a resident of Saguna More in Danapur, where a number of multi-storeyed buildings have come up in the recent past.

The resident said the builders took possession of such land with help of the local police. “Needless to say that the police officers are obliged by the builders for extending their help,” he added.

Such incidents have gained alarming proportions in areas such as Saguna More, Gola Road, RPS More, Jagdeo Path, Biscomaun Colony, Sandalpur and New Bypass. He attributed the reason to the unprecedented increase in the price of land in Patna and its suburbs in the past four years.

Nanhe Kumar, the state co-ordinator of the Builders’ Association of India (BAI), said they never encouraged such incidents. “We have 75 members in the state and all are men of repute. But the incident which took place at Jagdeo Path must be condemned,” he said.

Kumar, who is in the profession for the past 25 years, said: “The builder involved in the Jagdeo Path incident is not a member of our association.”