A major government land fraud has come to light in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district. Police allege that 1,144 bigha of valuable government land along the banks of the Ganga river was fraudulently transferred into other people's names. The then SDM, Omveer Singh, had already been sacked from his job for his involvement in the scam. Police have now arrested six people in total, including Omveer Singh, government lawyer Jai Bhardwaj and former gram pradhan Vikrant, and sent them to jail. The action has caused an uproar within the revenue department, which maintains land records.
Fake documents used to allot land in Gunnaur tehsil villages
The case is centred on the villages of Asadpur, Sukhaila and surrounding areas under Gunnaur tehsil. Valuable government land of the jhau category existed here along the Ganga, and it was at the time under the consolidation, or chakbandi, process. According to police, land mafia elements colluded with certain officials to prepare fake documents for this land and got leases sanctioned illegally. As soon as the irregularity came to light, a case was registered at Gunnaur police station on July 2 based on a complaint filed by lekhpal Swati Sharma. A total of 19 people have been named in the FIR under serious sections covering fraud, forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy.
Land was reallotted in 2019 by bypassing the rules
The investigation turned up a startling detail. In 2018, documents related to the same land had already been cancelled in this very case, and cases had been registered against several people. Despite this, in 2019 the then SDM Omveer Singh misused his position and approved leases again in the names of 162 people. The investigation committee's report also found that necessary rules were completely bypassed this time while distributing the land. No open gram sabha meeting was held, no consent was taken from residents, and no lottery was conducted to allot the leases. Beyond that, major discrepancies were also found in the land shares and in the count of beneficiaries.
Arrests began as soon as the probe report arrived
On June 4, 2026, a special investigation committee submitted its report to the District Magistrate. Police began rounding up the accused as soon as the report came in. On Friday, police arrested five people, including sacked SDM Omveer Singh, former government lawyer Jai Bhardwaj, the then chakbandi lekhpal Bhimrao Singh, former kanungo Rajveer Singh and sacked chakbandi officer Mahendra Singh. All of them were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court, from where they were sent to jail. Police say raids are continuing to nab the remaining accused, and the role of several other suspected officials is also being closely examined.
