Patna, Aug. 13: Twelve public servants, including two former IAS officers, were today charged with allotting 182 acres of government land in Kishanganj for tea plantation in violation of the prescribed rules .

The vigilance investigation bureau today submitted a chargesheet in the special vigilance court here against former Kishanganj district magistrates Radheshyam Bihari Singh and Subodh Nath Thakur and additional collectors Ram Niwas Pandey and Bengali Ram.

Sources said that the names of two sub-divisional officers, Pramod Kumar Singh and Madan Mohan Dev, also figured in the chargesheet. In addition, two former deputy collectors (land reforms) and four circle officers have been chargesheeted in the case.

They have been booked under Sections 7 and 13(2) read with 13(1)(d)of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and Sections 409 and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code. They have been charged with illegally granting industrial status to tea cultivation and allotting the land for the same. According to the chargesheet, Singh and Thakur allotted government land of Pothia and Thakurganj circles to 44 people, including five members of a particular family, on 90 years’ lease for tea plantation between 1997 and 1999.

The chargesheeted four former circle officers and two former additional district collectors include Raghunandan Jha (Pothia circle), Fatheh Faiyaz (Pothia circle), Poonam Kumari Jha (Thakurganj circle), Mohammad Maksood Alam (Thakurganj circle), former additional district magistrate (land reforms) Rahbare Islam and former assistant district magistrates (land reforms) Ram Niwas Pandey.