Abdur Rahim Boxi, a Trinamool Congress MLA and the district party president in Malda, was accused of illegally occupying a state-owned property of the irrigation and waterways department in the Ratua-I block.
On Thursday, Sarbananda Pandey, the Malda district secretary of Revolutionary Socialist Party, wrote to state irrigation minister Manas Bhunia, Sabina Yeasmin, MoS of the department, and the district magistrate, urging them to recover the property and initiate legal action against Boxi.
He said that in September 2008, Boxi—then with RSP—took the property on lease through an NGO he controlled. The lease was reportedly granted with the approval of the then irrigation minister, Subhas Naskar.
“Boxi became an MLA in 2011 and retained control over the property. After joining TMC in 2019, he got the property illegally recorded in his and his wife’s names, despite its government ownership,” Pandey claimed.
Boxi called it a politically-motivated attack, allegedly orchestrated by RSP leaders with indirect support from BJP, Congress, and CPM.
“I took the property on lease. Later, a local, Shankar Saha Ghosh, claimed ownership and presented records ... I purchased it from Ghosh at the market rate and legally registered it. There has been full transparency. If the state irrigation department proves that it is government land, I am ready to vacate it,” Boxi said.
