Journalist among 14 held for grabbing govt land worth Rs 1,000 cr in Kanpur

Fourteen people, including a TV journalist, have been arrested on charges of grabbing government land having a market value of over Rs 1,000 crore, police said on Monday.

Journalist Avneesh Dixit and others were arrested on Sunday after they were named in complaints lodged by the revenue officer and Samuel Gurudev Singh, to whom the land had been leased, they said.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Harish Chandra said Dixit has been arrested and FIRs have been registered at Kotwali police station in the matter. Efforts are being made to nab other accused.

The FIRs have been lodged under sections 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 74 (criminal force to any woman intending to outrage modesty), 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 191(2) (rioting), 308(5) (extortion), 310(2) (dacoity), 324(4) (mischief causes loss), 329(4) (house trespass), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

Dixit will be produced in court during the day, according to police.

Talking to PTI over the phone, District Magistrate (DM) Rakesh Kumar Singh said action was taken after information was received that Dixit along with three dozen others had allegedly trespassed about 7,500 square metres of government land in the posh Civil Lines pocket which has a market value of over Rs 1,000 crore.

Dixit and his men allegedly broke the locks and put their own on the rooms, Singh said.

A revenue team headed by the additional DM found that the land was state land (Nazul) and the lease had already expired, he added.

Elaborating further, Singh said the land was given on lease in 1884 for a period of 99 years. The lease was renewed for 25 years and that period is also over now.