A death and a plot

A land acquisition bid by the Bhopal Development Authority may be connected to the mysterious death of the departments CEO M G Rusiya,with a BJP MLA coming under the cloud of suspicion....

More than two weeks after the mysterious death of Bhopal Development Authoritys chief executive officer M G Rusiya,56,whose family has pointed the finger of suspicion at a BJP MLA,investigators are yet to reach any conclusion.

What is clear is that the official was dealing with 3,000 acre of prime land most of it off the NH-69 on the outskirts of Bhopal which the authority plans to develop.

It is also believed that the MLA from Huzur,Jitendra Daga,was desperate to save as much of the 18 acres of land that he and his family members own from being acquired by the authority.

Rusiya and the MLA had flown together to New Delhi on September 10 to consult a Supreme Court lawyer on whether what Daga wanted was possible by law. Daga wanted ownership of the land reserved for public amenities with the landowner rather than the BDA.

The lawyer endorsed what the BDA had maintained such a transfer of ownership was illegal. The trips expenditure was borne entirely by Daga,who even loaned a few thousand rupees to the official to buy a precious stone.

Daga and Rusiya were to take the evening flight back but took the overnight train instead. While Daga got down at the main railway station in Bhopal,Rusiya who was to alight at Habibganj,never did.

The MLA told the police that when he woke up the next morning he found Rusiyas shoes and luggage lying in the coupe and thought he was in the toilet. The BDA CEOs body was found near Agra on September 11 after a frantic search. Rusiyas family,meanwhile,is not convinced by Dagas version of events and wants him booked.

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Until he was elected last year,Daga was known only for his proximity to senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj. She,however,has now maintained a distance from him.

The MLA is clearly under a cloud. The BDAs land acquisition officer Shriram Tiwari has accused Daga of putting pressure on BDA officials to change the acquisition pattern. He was the last person to be with Rusiya so he has a lot to answer for, he told The Indian Express. BDA chairman and BJP leader Surendra Singh said the authority decided to develop the land in collaboration with the owners only in June. Each landowner was to sign an agreement with the authority and it was to develop the land after collecting development and supervision fees from them.

The authority was forced to think of private partnership because landowners,who were paid compensation for their land,had challenged the earlier acquisition proceedings,delaying development. According to the new arrangement,the authority would have developed the land by providing roads,electricity and sewerage among other facilities,reserved part of it for public amenities,and returned the remainder to the owner.

The BDA is working on 13 development schemes,and a couple of them would have led to acquisition of Dagas land. Because this land falls in the area reserved as commercial in the master plan he would have lost up to 50 per cent of it.

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Singh was evasive on whether Rusiyas Delhi trip was official and what business Daga had to accompany a BDA official to Delhi and,moreover,fund the trip. He said the MLA represented the interests of other farmers and wanted to be kept in the loop about acquisition details. Tiwari,however,alleged that it was because of Daga that not one agreement had been signed yet.

The UP police have questioned Daga and the railway staff that was on duty. After a letter from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan,UP CM Mayawati has written to the CBI to take over the investigation. The Opposition Congress has also joined the chorus for a probe.