Sonbhadra clash: Yogi Adityanath alleges members of co-operative society had Cong links

Yogi Adityanath links Congress with the co-operative society, which was reportedly the "root cause" of the land dispute that led to the Sonbhadra massacre.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has alleged several members of the co-operative society, which was the "root cause" of the land dispute that led to the Sonbhadra massacre, had links with the Congress.

He was talking about the findings of a committee formed after 10 Gond tribals were killed on July 17 in a clash following a tussle over control of land allegedly grabbed by the Adarsh Co-operative Society Umbha/Saphi.

"The probe committee found that on October 10, 1952, Adarsh Co-operative Society Umbha/Saphi was formed. It had 12 members, including the founder (mukhya pravartak) Maheshwar Prasad Narayan Singh and manager Durga Prasad Rai," Adityanath said.

"Maheshwar Prasad Narayan Singh was a Congress Rajya Sabha MP and MLC from Bihar. He was the uncle of former UP governor Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh," he added.

The chief minister also did not spare the Samajwadi Party, claiming that the main accused in the July 17 incident was a close aide of former SP MLA Ranesh Chandra Dubey.

"The main accused person of the July 17 incident Yagyadutt was a close aide of former SP MLA Ranesh Chandra Dubey and had campaigned for the party in the assembly elections. The brother of the village pradhan used to get contracts for road construction," the chief minister alleged.

In 1989, the land was transferred in the names of individual society members, he said.

After going through the records, the probe team has found that the tehsildar of Robertsganj in 1955 passed an order for registering 1305 bighas of land, belonging to the gram sabha, in the name of the society.

"The order of the tehsildar was incorrect and beyond his jurisdiction," Adityanath said, adding that "the society was the root cause of the Sonbhadra massacre."

Citing the probe report, he said the village pradhan and his aides had tried to grab the land in 2018 in collusion with the police and revenue officials, but they were unsuccessful.

The probe team came to know that nearly 140 families have been doing farming on the land of the society for past three generations. For this, they used to pay a fixed amount to Neeraj Rai, the representative of the society, he said.

On October 17, 2017, the payment was stopped after aides of the village pradhan got the registry of the land done.

Despite strong objections of the villagers, Assistant Land Records Officer Rajkumar ordered change of names in revenue records on February 27, 2019, the chief minister said citing the probe report.

Subsequently, the villagers filed 11 appeals before the district magistrate of Sonbhadra against the change of names in revenue records, he said.

On July 6, 2019, these appeals were dismissed by the DM merely on technical ground, although two appeals against the February 27 order were pending in the court of district magistrate, according to the probe report.

They are likely to come up for hearing on August 9.

The police had slapped the Goonda Act on villagers but no action was initiated against the village pradhan and his aides, leading to the unfortunate incident, Adityanath said.