18 fake mutations for agro land cancelled in Bikaner

The Bikaner district administration has cancelled 18 fake mutations of around 360 hectares of agricultural land near Kolayat town. 

Official sources in the district administration, speaking on the condition of anonymity, claimed that Skylight Hospitality, a company owned by Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, had also bought the land from sellers in the area. The sources said some people had faked records and sold the land.

However, no official documents have been released to establish that Vadra's company had purchased the land. But BJP MP from Bikaner, Arjun Ram Meghwal, has claimed that 40 per cent of the cancelled land was earlier purchased by Vadra. This could spell fresh trouble for Vadra as the Haryana Government is also taking steps to look into the purchase of land by him in that state. “The Bikaner district administration has cancelled several fake land mutations created a few years back. About 40 per cent of the cancelled land was purchased by Robert Vadra’s company in Goyalri, Gajner, Indo Ka Bala and Mand village near Kolayat town,” alleged Meghwal. Vadra might have sold this piece of land to other companies, he added.

Meghwal alleged that a few people managed to get land mutation in the names of those displaced during the expansion of Mahajan Field Firing Range in Bikaner. Later they sold land to private companies. The district administration has taken control of the entire chunk of land and declared it as government owned land.  The sources said that a complaint regarding fake mutation was filed last year and within one month the land mutations were cancelled.

“It’s an old issue related to Mahajan Field Firing Range. Some initial mutations were found fake so we cancelled them last September,” said collector Arti Dogra Bikaner .

Land was acquired in Bikaner, between 1992 to 1996, for expansion of Mahajan Field Firing Range of Indian Army. A number of people were displaced and they were promised compensation and allotment of land in other places. In 2005-06, during previous tenure of Vasundhara Raje, some fake mutations were opened in revenue records in the name of displaced people. Legal experts are of the view that if original mutation of land is cancelled then all transactions of land done will become null and void automatically. Before the assembly elections, BJP had issued a Black Paper against the Congress party which prominently highlighted the huge chunk of land purchased by Varda in Rajasthan. The BJP had alleged that Vadra purchased land from farmers at a cheap price and sold it at high price to other companies.