The boundary, raised by Mahavir Prasad, intercepts the course of the river near Hazaribagh. Picture by Vishvendu Jaipuriar

Hazaribagh, July 20: In a bizarre case of bureaucratic graft, a retired IAS officer has blatantly kept a river captive.

Mahavir Prasad, who retired in 2008 as state food commissioner, and then bought a 90-acre plot at Matukdwar village, Katkamdag block, 10km from Hazaribagh, was unfazed about the 2km of Bokaro river on its premises. Three months ago, he simply raised a 12-feet high boundary wall to clamp the stretch of the river.

It’s daylight robbery, but strangely, villagers, who are worst affected by this, are not making a big hue and cry.

“The river has water throughout the year and we use it for irrigation and countless other needs. Prasadji has committed a big crime with this forcible capture. But we can’t speak against him as he is a big man,’ said a farmer not wishing to be named.

Sanjeev Sinha, a prominent lawyer of Hazaribagh, said that this was completely illegal. “No industry or individual can capture a river, even if it changes its course after purchase of land. Jharkhand Pollution Control Board can lodge an FIR against Prasad. The SDO can file a case under section 133 CrPc against Prasad for creating nuisance,” he said.

Needless to say, nothing of the kind has happened. In fact, Katkamdag circle officer Ram Narayan Singh, when first contacted, expressed surprise. “I am checking old records to know about this land. I will hand over my report to SDO Binay Kumar Rai for further action,” he said.

But how did the land, which the river cuts through, get sold in the first place? This question exposes a murky nexus between block-level officials and the land mafia.

Most areas here fall under the government’s gair majurwa category. To sell it to persons other than representatives of Scheduled Castes/Tribes or Other Backward Castes, cabinet approval is needed. But in Hazaribagh, the land mafia makes fake 50-60-year-old hukumnamas in the name of landlords to get plots “settled”. In the case of Prasad, who has property near St Columba’s College in Hazaribagh, many said he had managed to get gair majurwa land settled in his name. Since register-II was conveniently missing from Katkamdag block, it was not possible to get all the data on this land.

Sources said that this kind of manipulation is frequent. They said that land capturing was frequent in the Barkagaon-Katkamdag stretch, where coal mining projects were being undertaken by NTPC, Jindal Group, Reliance Power, Abhijeet Group and many more.

Despite repeated attempts Prasad could not be contacted. His family members did not want to comment on this issue. “We will answer all queries if asked by competent authorities and furnish valid documents. As far as I know, this is a rayati plot,” said a male member, not wishing to be named.