As someone replacing Sadanand Date as Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Udham Singh Nagar district and chief of Special Investigation Team (SIT) heading the multi-crore National Highway (NH)-74 land acquisition and compensation scam, there is a task cut out before Krishna Kumar V K; to complete the remaining inquiry and file final charge-sheet in the high profile case.
The State Government which was reluctant to relieve Date for deputation to country’s top investigation agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) till the NH-74 probe is taken to its logical end, finally, relented and relieved him on Saturday. The SIT under Date has completed most of investigation, sent more than two dozen people including officers of Provincial Civil Service (PCS) to jail and had submitted damming report on the role played by Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers Pankaj Kumar Pandey and Chandresh Kumar Yadav as arbitrators which has resulted in their suspension.
One of the keenly watched scenarios would be the action taken by the SIT under Krishna Kumar V K on the fund transfers done by the beneficiary farmers of NH-74 compensation in Udham Singh Nagar district to the official account of Congress party.
The SIT had already questioned former State President Kishore Upadhyaya and closed aids of former Chief Minister Harish Rawat on deposits allegedly made by beneficiaries of the scam in the official account of Congress party prior to the Assembly elections of 2017.
Under the ambit of the SIT are the transactions into a State Bank of India (SBI), account (Nashvilla Road, Dehradun branch) during first two months of year 2017. According to an estimate, deposits worth Rs 5.5 Crore occurred during this period into this account and the withdrawals too were readily made. Interestingly both Kishore Upadhyaya and then treasurer of the party were not operating this account. The account under the scanner of SIT was being operated by OSD and close aide of then Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Kamal Singh Rawat and Mahavir Rangad.
The NH-74 scam-The multi-crore scam occurred during the years 2011 to 2016 when work on widening of the Haridwar-Bareilly National Highway (NH–74) was taking place. It is alleged that many times more compensation was provided to the farmers whose lands were acquired.
The scam was, first of all, detected by then Kumaon Commissioner, D Senthil Pandian after which the Trivendra Singh Rawat ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Udham Singh Nagar, Sadanand Date to investigate the case. The SIT has, so far, sent two dozen officers and employees of revenue and administration to jail in connection with the scam.
Based on SIT report, which purportedly has indicted the role played by then District Magistrates (DM) of Udham Singh Nagar as arbitrators in the cases involving disputes in the compensation offered to the farmers for their lands, the State Government has suspended two IAS officer Pankaj Kumar Pandey and Chandresh Kumar Yadav and further action on them is awaited.
