Jhargram Land Scam: Entire Village Sold in 400-Acre Deal
Jhargram: An entire village sold using fake deed documents? The shocking development is still unfolding in the Bakra village of the Pathra gram panchayat, within the Sankrail block of Bengal’s Jungle Mahal region in Jhargram district. In a brazen act of forgery, houses, agricultural land and even the gram panchayat office building along with its surrounding property have been sold off using counterfeit papers. The scammers did not spare even the Banka Junior High School and the local Karma Tirtha centre.
And it is not just Bakra village that is affected by the fraud. Land parcels and homes in the Manik Jhatiya, Angarnali and Chunapara villages have also been sold without the knowledge of the owners. In this way, nearly 400 acres of land have allegedly been transferred to some individuals and Kolkata-based companies.
The scale of this alleged fraud, spanning four mouzas (a mouza is a revenue unit in Bengal), appears to be without precedent in the state. Since April 2024, nearly 500 families in the Pathra gram panchayat area have reportedly fallen victim to the scam. On September 18, 2025, police arrested Sukranjan Mahata, a known land mafia from the Chirakuti village under the Sankrail block, in connection with the case. Two others, Nakul Kungar and Sourav Mahata were arrested under the same FIR (110/25, Sankrail Police Station), on September 27.
Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita sections dealing with the offences of cheating and forgery (related to wills and properties) and criminal conspiracy have been applied against those arrested. The Jhargram district administration has also set up an investigation team to probe the matter.
Meanwhile, reports of land grabbing through forged deeds surfaced almost daily through recent weeks. Residents were unsure about the full extent of their properties that had been illegally sold using fabricated documents. According to allegations, the fraudulent transfers were carried out through fake inheritance certificates purportedly issued under the name of Pathra Gram Panchayat Pradhan (chief) Dipak Baisnab.
Interestingly, Baisnab claimed that even two acres of land belonging to him were sold off without his knowledge. He had received the plot several years ago under the government’s refugee rehabilitation scheme (at jurisdiction list number 126) in the Chunapara mouza.
“I learned about this only a few days ago from local residents,” Baisnab said. “When I checked, I discovered that numerous inheritance certificates had been issued bearing my forged signature and the gram panchayat stamp. Using these forged documents, lands were transferred to others without the rightful owners’ knowledge.”
He also revealed that the Pathra gram panchayat office building and portions of its adjoining land had been ‘sold’. In one instance, a father’s name on a forged deed was absurdly recorded as “collectorate of Jhargram”. Baisnab emphasised that both his signature and the panchayat’s official seal had been forged in these instances.
“The official letterhead of the Pathra gram panchayat is blue, but all the inheritance certificates submitted to the registry office are Xerox copies,” Baisnab explained. “My signatures on those documents also feature a uniform full stop placed at exactly the same distance in every instance. How can someone’s signature consistently maintain such identical spacing across certificates supposedly issued on different dates?”
“I have demanded a thorough investigation from the district administration,” he added. “The inquiry is already underway – let us see what comes of it.” Baisnab acknowledged that villagers are now living in fear of losing their land.
Several residents of the affected mouzas have alleged that officials from the district registry and the block land and land reforms office (BLLRO) are complicit in the scam. “This corruption was carried out through a nexus between land mafias, politically influential persons and government departments. All of them must come under the investigation scanner,” alleged Dhirendra Nath Mahato, a retired teacher and resident of Bakra village.
Mahato revealed that, in his own case, he had been falsely declared dead and one acre of his land was sold off using a forged inheritance certificate.
How nearly 400 acres of land was sold
The Pathra gram panchayat lies about 153 kilometres from Kolkata and 33 kilometres from the Jhargram district headquarters. The panchayat office itself is in Bakra village. Travelling from Jhargram towards Kolkata along National Highway 6, known as Bombay Road, one reaches Guptomoni village after 26 kilometres; from there, a right turn followed by a seven-kilometre drive leads to Bakra.
This area is home to predominantly poor, marginalised and lower-middle-class families, with agriculture serving as the main source of livelihood for most residents.
“On September 12, we learned that all our land had been sold,” said Indrajit Mahato of Bakra. Thereafter, another resident, while searching for his documents, discovered that his land had been sold. Soon after, it became clear that land belonging to many villagers had been sold off without their knowledge, Indrajit said.
He elaborated on the ordeal: “My father, Goutam Mahato, is alive – yet he has been declared dead. Not just that, my elder brother Subhojit and I have also been shown as deceased. Someone then obtained a certificate naming himself as our successor and sold all our land to another person.”
Proloy Mahato shared a similar experience: “My father’s name is Lalmohan Mahato,” he said. “He was falsely shown as childless, and a man impersonated my father’s nephew to claim inheritance. Using this fake identity, he obtained an inheritance certificate from the panchayat and sold our two acres of land to a land broker.”
Chandramohan Mahato, 65, who runs a motorcycle repair shop in Bakra, recounted his story: “I was shown as dead – and even my son Siddhartha was declared dead. Our six bighas of land were sold by a man named Gobinda Mahato from Lalgarh. We do not know him; he is not related to us in any way. Yet he sold our land using a forged panchayat certificate claiming to be our legal heir.”
While this reporter was speaking to Chandramohan at his shop, several villagers – Samir, Hari, Deben, Ashoke and Shibotosh Mahato – arrived. They, too, said that according to official records of the Pathra gram panchayat, they are “dead”. Their house plots and farmlands had been ‘sold’, they said, but without their knowledge.
The group of locals accompanied this reporter to their farmland in Uttarpara, a part of Bakra located just a kilometre away. Carrying the village’s mouza map, they pointed out their plots in the northern section, where paddy cultivation was ongoing. They have not sold any of this land, they said, but they said they had discovered that it had been sold illegally to “big companies in Kolkata”.
Madhu Sudan Mahato unfolded the map and showed the plots that, according to records, he and the others still legally own. “Yet the documents say otherwise. We have been cheated,” he said.
Kholona Mahato, a woman farmer, voiced her anguish, saying: “I found out that everything we own is gone. Where will we live now? We have stopped eating and sleeping because of the fear of eviction.”
Farmer Kalipada Manna echoed the same despair, saying that all his land, including his homestead, had been fraudulently sold. “I heard that our school has also been sold. We want the administration to take action against this fraud,” said Joylal Soren, the teacher-in-charge of Bakra Junior High School.
In Chunapara village, rural doctor Parikshit Mahato confirmed the same pattern of fraud. “Our land and homestead were captured and sold by submitting forged inheritance certificates issued by the panchayat.”
Who sold 400 acres land – and to whom?
According to locals, the fraudulent land sales have been taking place since April 2024. The matter came to light when 75 pattadars, or landowners with permanent settlement deeds issued by the government, from Bakra and Angarnali villages, attempted to transfer their land to their sons.
“After news of the land-grab surfaced, we visited the Sankrail BLLRO and the district registration office,” said Subash Mahato. “There, we discovered that several people, unknown to us, had sold our land using fake inheritance certificates issued by Pathra gram panchayat.”
He further claimed that land records showed individuals unknown to them, named Samir Mahato of Chuyasholi village, Chandra Mohan Mahato of Gurimol village and Badal Mahato of Gurmura village under Sardiha gram panchayat, as having sold multiple plots by falsely presenting themselves as legal heirs.
Several affected landowners alleged that these individuals were politically influential, and that helped enable the scam.
Local Dhirendra Nath Mahato added that many landowners across the four affected mouzas have received official notices stating that their plots had been mutated in someone else’s name. “We were summoned to appear at the BLLRO office in Sankrail on specific dates for hearings,” he said. “But we never sold our land – so how can it be transferred to another person’s name?”
Residents say they went to the BLLRO office, the Jhargram registry office and even met the district magistrate. They told them they never sold their land and demanded that it be returned to them, apart from calling for a thorough investigation and strict punishment for those involved, locals said.
Administrative response
Jhargram district sub-registrar Joyjit Chandra explained: “When someone comes to buy or sell land, the registry office checks that they have the authority to do so. Aadhaar card, ten fingerprints, photographs of the buyer and seller and a witness signature are mandatory. Once verified, the registry office completes the deed and receives revenue for it. In each of these [Pathra gram panchayat] cases, a succession certificate issued by the concerned panchayat chief was there. The registry office validated these certificates, but we do not investigate each case individually.”
He added that no complaints had been filed previously. “Only after multiple allegations were filed from the Pathra gram panchayat area did the Jhargram district magistrate order an investigation. A committee has been formed, the inquiry has begun and one arrest has already been made.”
Sankrail block land and land reform officer Asit Dolui also said, “Once land is registered, there are two ways to apply for mutation – either online through the district registry office or in person at the block office. In this case, the land was purchased for industrial purposes. For such land, the buyer must pay Rs 1,000 per decimal of land as government revenue, which amounts to Rs 1 lakh for 100 decimals. None of the buyers were willing to pay this fee, so no mutation of these lands has taken place. As a result, the original owners remain the legal owners.”
Dolui further stated that, following widespread complaints, the state land department has been notified and all land transactions in these mouzas have been “locked”. “From now on, no one will be able to buy or sell land in these areas without permission from the concerned department,” he said.
Rising concerns
Residents, however, continue to voice pressing questions. How could land have been sold from a single gram panchayat day after day, often by the same individuals acting as either seller or witness, without alerting the district registry office? Were some employees within the concerned departments complicit?
Arjun Mahato, vice-president of the Sara Bharat Krishak Sabha’s Jhargram district committee, said, “We submitted a deputation to the Sankrail BLLRO on September 25, who assured us of necessary action. However, no steps have been taken so far. Until action is taken against the culprits and the rightful owners get their land back, the Krishak Sabha will continue its movement.”
Meanwhile, panic persists in the region as new revelations of land grabbing keep coming to light. People from the Pathra gram panchayat are setting aside their daily work to travel to Jhargram to check the status of their lands.
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