Patna: Every week, 34-year-old Akash Kumar makes a six-hour journey from Supaul to Patna in pursuit of justice and to ensure the law cracks down on a man who robbed him of his life savings and allegedly harassed his wife. Once in the state capital, the banker knocks on every possible door—police, courts, even politicians.
It’s a three kattha plot valued at Rs 1.5 crore on the outskirts of Patna in the Danapur subdivision—a rapidly developing locality—that has become the bone of contention for Kumar and his wife. With loans amounting to Rs 1.44 crore and additional Rs 30 lakh spent on registry and fencing, Kumar and his wife were in this for the long haul of EMIs. Except they didn’t know they were being trapped by a land mafia.
As soon as construction began on the land, Santosh Kumar Bharti—the middleman who facilitated the deal—and his men armed with a JCB appeared on the site and demolished the boundary wall. They claimed the plot did not belong to the couple. Upon checking the online records, the couple discovered that they had fallen victim to a nexus of land mafia. The plot was not even in the name of Naveen Kumar, the person who had sold it to them.
Overnight, the banker couple’s dream of building a home turned into a nightmare. “We will be paying for a house that we will probably never see come to life,” said Kumar.
Bihar is among the top states with the highest number of land-related murders. According to the latest available NCRB statistics, the state has topped the list for murders related to land disputes, recording a total 815 cases in 2021. Over the years, the trend in land dispute-related murders has remained alarmingly consistent, with 800 cases in 2020, 782 in 2019, a peak of 1016 in 2018, and 939 in 2017.
The absence of an alternate big urban centre has led to the over congestion of Patna, skyrocketing land prices in a state that has little presence of business. This makes for a perfect dish for men with political patronage and muscle power to turn it into a big crime opportunity, duping hundreds of people of their hard-earned money in land dealings. Bihar’s land mafia dealings have its own share of bloodshed despite police taking strict measures to stop this menace. It’s a sophisticated game of fake rent receipts, disputed land records and lengthy litigation that often ends in a kangaroo court run by the mafia themselves.
Explaining the modus operandi, Patna-based builder Bablu Kumar said the business of developers in Bihar is often impacted by the presence of land mafias.
“They simply file a fake rent receipt, falsely claiming ownership of the land where the project is underway. Once sections 144 or 145 of CrPC are invoked, the land is classified as disputed. Each day of delay can cost a builder lakhs of rupees. If the matter isn’t resolved within a month, the financial loss can escalate into crores. As a result, most builders opt to settle the issue out of court,” he said.
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The loophole
D.N. Singh, one of Bihar’s prominent real estate dealers, purchased 80 kattha of land from local farmer in Saguna More two decades ago. His vision was to construct one of the biggest malls in the area, and he even had the architectural plan ready. However, just as he was about to begin construction, another party emerged with a claim over the same land.
Seeking intervention from the state, Singh managed to secure the boundary under the administration’s supervision in 2013 and had it locked. However, the other party took the matter to court, and the land has remained stuck in litigation ever since.
Over the past 15 years, Singh has lost time and approximately Rs100 crore on a project that never saw light of the day.
An it’s not just his business interest that has taken a hit. Singh has been named as an accused in the murder of Kedar Rai, another land mafia.
“When Kedar Rai was killed, I was attending a builders’ meet in London, yet I was still named in the FIR. Now, I am not only fighting for the land but also battling an alleged murder accusation.”
According to Singh, the real issue is the existence of fake, backdated land documents and the years of litigation that discourage builders like him.
They simply file a fake rent receipt, falsely claiming ownership of the land where the project is underway. Once sections 144 or 145 of CrPC are invoked, the land is classified as disputed. Each day of delay can cost a builder lakhs of rupees. If the matter isn’t resolved within a month, the financial loss can escalate into crores. As a result, most builders opt to settle the issue out of court.
Bablu Kumar, Patna-based builder
In most cases of land grab, plots/flats are sold to multiple parties. The first party, whose name is registered on the sale deed and mutation in the land records with the revenue and land department, retains their claim. When disputes arise, the revenue department cancels the subsequent sale deeds, leaving the first party as the rightful owner.
Danapur Circle Officer Chandar Kumar pointed out this critical loophole in land records.
“The problem lies with the registry office. They have the records of registry, mutation, and sale deeds. They can easily prevent these issues at the very first stage when a second party comes for registry of the same land within a year,” he said.
However, Switi Suman, the sub-registrar at Danapur Sub-Registry Office, disagreed. “We simply don’t have the manpower to verify sale deeds or review mutation records and resolve disputes. It’s the job of the courts to decide the validity of a registry after investigation. Our responsibility is to collect the revenue.”
On the ground, it’s a classic case of blame game across various departments. The police often point fingers at the land and revenue department for not addressing the loopholes that allow land mafias to thrive. Meanwhile, the land and revenue officials deflect the responsibility back to the courts asserting that it is up to the judiciary to determine the validity of land claims.
“The genesis of the modern day’s land mafia lies in a fundamental flaw: land ownership is established through rent receipts, making it a huge market where anyone can produce a rent receipt for any piece of land,” said Bihar Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) head Vivek Singh.
Inadequate land records also create fertile ground for land mafias to flourish. The last comprehensive land survey in Bihar took place before India’s Independence. In 1902, the British government conducted the Cadastral Survey, which was further revised in 1965 by the Bihar government. But major gaps and inaccuracies still remain, contributing to the current land related issues.
The genesis of the modern day’s land mafia lies in a fundamental flaw: land ownership is established through rent receipts, making it a huge market where anyone can produce a rent receipt for any piece of land.
Bihar Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) head Vivek Singh
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A capital mafia
Two married daughters of a farming family are desperate to sell their share of their father’s two kattha land, going against their father’s wishes. The father, who has a minor son, is willing to go to any length to save his and his son’s share. This family’s conflict, with one party wanting to sell their share and the other firmly opposing it, will soon become the perfect recipe for the entry of a land mafia. And thirty-year-old Dhiraj Kumar, a Patna-based land dealer, has his eyes set on this Rs three crore transaction.
“My job is to bring both parties—the father and the daughters—onto the same page and secure a deal for Rs two crore,” Kumar said. He added that once the agreement is in place, he would find buyers within ten days, ready to pay Rs three crore in one go. “But if the father refuses, the daughters will still sell their share, which could turn this into disputed land because the father will challenge it, bringing in a stay order.”
He clarified that if he doesn’t manipulate the father into selling; someone else would.
When it comes to describing his work, Kumar often fumbles, sometimes referring to himself as a financier, on other occasions a land dealer. But there is more to his portfolio. He is a history sheeter at the Rupaspur police station, with multiple FIRs filed against him. In October 2024, he was arrested in one of the cases under the Arms Act, but secured bail by the end of December.
He is also an offender at the state RERA but surprisingly, he escapes the summons there. He acknowledged that while builders have faced tighter regulations since the establishment of RERA, the plotting of farming lands for residential or commercial purposes remains an open game for all. This is where he operates now.
“No farmer sells his land directly to builders, and no builders can make a deal without brokers. So for every sale and purchase, one has to come to people like us,” he boasted. He said that some builders who independently signed contracts with farmers were never able to complete their projects, leaving construction midway.
The confidence in his voice stems from the muscle power he enjoys in the area.
Located at a short distance from his office in Jalalpur village in Patna, Kumar’s house is under constant watch of more than five CCTV cameras. Brokers are frequent visitors, either bringing in potential customers, or aggrieved parties settling their disputes.
His office sometimes doubles up as a venue for marriages or gatherings. Within the office premises, a German Shepherd is tied, providing an additional layer of security. A framed portrait of Kumar posing with Rit Lal Yadav, an RJD MLA and infamous land mafia in the Danapur area, hangs on the wall alongside large images of different Hindu gods.
Akash Kumar claimed that Santosh Kumar Bharti’s men had also used Rit Lal Yadav’s name to threaten him. They want him to settle the matter outside the court.
“Santosh Kumar Bharti boasted that Rit Lal Yadav is big brother to him and nothing will happen to him. Bharti and his group initially tried to settle the matter outside the courts and police station, but we proceeded with our legal fight,” he added.
No farmer sells his land directly to builders, and no builders can make a deal without brokers. So for every sale and purchase, one has to come to people like us.
Dhiraj Kumar, Patna-based land dealer
At first glance, Dhiraj Kumar doesn’t look like a typical land mafia of the previous generation. Unlike Anant Singh, Rit Lal Yadav, or late Satya Narayan Singh and late Kedar Rai, he isn’t surrounded by armed guards or flashy black SUVs.
“Today’s land mafia operates in a sophisticated manner, much like cyber criminals. Their only modus operandi is to create a land dispute. It’s as easy as creating a fake Facebook profile,” Bihar DGP Vinay Kumar told ThePrint.
Ever since he took charge in December last year, DGP Vinay Kumar’s public interactions have been dominated by land-related pairvis (recommendations). A common pattern has emerged — either no First Information Report (FIR) is filed in such cases, or if one is filed, no action is taken. The sight of people duped by land mafia waiting outside offices of DMs, SPs, DGP, RERA etc is common in Bihar.
However, he emphasised that with increased police surveillance, the state’s machinery against mafias, the establishment of RERA, and land digitisation, “might is right” is no longer a frequent headline in the local dailies.
Today’s land mafia operates in a sophisticated manner, much like cyber criminals. Their only modus operandi is to create a land dispute. It’s as easy as creating a fake Facebook profile.
Bihar DGP Vinay Kumar
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In deindustrialised Bihar, land is gold
A decade ago, Dhiraj Kumar was working as a supplier at the site of LARA— an ambitious project hailed as Bihar’s biggest mall, interestingly named after former CMs Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi. The project soon faded from the billboards as it landed in controversies.
Allegations surfaced that soil excavated from the mall’s plot was transported to Patna Zoo, under the garb of a Rs 90 lakh earth-filling tender, awarded by Lalu’s son Tej Pratap Yadav, then the Environment and Forest Minister.
Consequently, Dhiraj’s time as a supplier came to an end. However, he stumbled upon an asset class appreciating at record pace, particularly in the state capital— land deals.
“Bihar’s first-ever gated society, Jalalpur City, was established in our village. All of a sudden, land became costly. Young men turned brokers and I jumped in too,” Dhiraj Kumar, now 30, recounted, sitting in a brown sofa, his hands resting on a matching shining teak wood table in his office next to a railway line in the Rupaspur area of Danapur.
“Danapur’s Saguna More will be the next Dak Bangla (located in the hub of Patna),” Kumar predicted with confidence. “In no time, the entire location would become as elite as Boring Road.” Boring road is where Patna’s elite live and work.
Danapur, once a far outskirt of Patna and filled with wild grass and the stench of drains, has now transformed into a landscape of convent schools, hospitals, luxury salons, jewellers, eateries, and hotels etc, becoming Patna’s costliest and most sought-after locality. Absence of another big city in Bihar has meant everybody wants to settle in Patna, making it a prime real estate. The city’s real estate is hyperinflated, especially when compared to what buyers get when they invest in other big cities of India.
It is more expensive than Noida, Gurugram, or other metropolitan areas.
Patna-based land dealer Dhiraj Kumar
In the early 2000s, one kattha in Danapur was valued at not more than Rs 10 lakh, according to local residents. Today, it sells for over Rs one crore for residential purposes, and the price can go up to Rs 1.5 to two crore for commercial use.
“It is more expensive than Noida, Gurugram, or other metropolitan areas,” Dhiraj Kumar said, explaining his purchase of a two-kattha plot to house the office of Anushka City Private Limited, a construction company he founded in 2017.
In less than a decade, he has put five of his houses up for rent in the Rupaspur locality, opened a restaurant, and sold approximately 50 kattha of land since he ventured into the land business.
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The nexus: Cops, clerks, muscle men
The land mafia in Bihar stands on two pillars—corrupt bureaucracy and political patronage, which often extends to the likes of Dhiraj Kumar and Santosh Kumar Bharti. In a state that has barely any industry left, land deals mean big ticket transactions—an opportunity for various stakeholders to come looking for their share.
In many cases of alleged fraud, a set script is being followed. The buyer is introduced to the seller/broker by a trusted source. The transaction is done. But the seller doesn’t show up at the time of registration. When the aggrieved party checks records of sale deed copies, it is often found that the land has been sold to a third party. And since the route of litigation is lengthy and tiring, the victim often settles the matter out of court or as Dhiraj boasts, they are forced to come “on the table”.
“Court cases can outlive you,” said Bihar RERA head Vivek Singh, adding that the matters are eventually settled in the Kangaroo courts run by the mafia. And in these Kangaroo courts, everyone—from sellers to buyers to builders—surrenders. 42-year-old Kanhaiya Singh, a Subedar in the Indian Army, is currently doing the same.
Singh was planning to buy a home in Patna so his school-going children could live in the capital and access better education.
“I have served in places such as Siachen and other tough terrains. I had to settle my family in Patna. My brother, Rajesh Kumar, an ASI with the Bihar police, got in touch with another cop, Sudhir Kumar Singh, who had purchased one kattha in Rupaspur,” said Kanhaiya.
Kanhaiya, his brother Rajesh Kumar, and their friend Praveen Kumar, a probationary officer with the State Bank of India, showed interest in purchasing plots from Dhiraj Kumar after checking with ASI Sudhir Kumar Singh. The ASI had purchased a plot from Dhiraj Kumar and vouched for him. Advance payments ranging between Rs 16 lakh and Rs 10 lakh were made.
“He sold the plots at Rs 45 lakh per kattha for such a prime location. The plots were just behind the Maa Tara City apartment complex, and we verified the documents showing that they belonged to Dhiraj Kumar,” said Kanhaiya.
But Dhiraj never turned up for the registry and later sold the same land to a registry clerk named Mahabali Bhama posted at the Danapur registry office, records showed online.
After conducting his due diligence, Kanhaiya had paid Rs 2.11 lakh to Mahabali Bhama for registry of plot. Little did he know this government official was hand in glove with the land mafia.
Following the court’s intervention, Dhiraj agreed to repay the Rs 13.8 lakh he had taken from Kanhaiya. However, the cheques he issued kept bouncing. Exhausted with visits to court, police stations, and even higher authorities, the soldier gave up and went to the “table”.
Dhiraj Kumar began repaying in small, irregular amounts—sometimes Rs 25,000, sometimes Rs 10,000.
“I have only received Rs 8.5 lakh in small instalments,” said Kanhaiya, visibly frustrated.
And Kanhaiya has been facing threats from Dhiraj’s men who often use the local MLA’s name to muzzle his voice. “Getting someone killed wouldn’t even cost that much, I have been told,” said Kanhaiya.
But even getting the Rs 8.5 lakh wasn’t easy.
“The investigating officer at Rupaspur police station, Naveen Kumar, demanded Rs one lakh from me to help recover my hard-earned money,” Kanhaiya alleged.
He claimed that a thriving network of registry clerks, cops, and politicians’ muscle men enable mafias like Dhiraj Kumar to operate with impunity.
Dhiraj isn’t concerned about the cases against him, dismissing them all as fraud.
The overwhelming workload at the Danapur registry office demanded that it should be divided into two wings—Danapur and Bihta—in 2022. The combined number of registries processed at these offices in 2024 surpassed 16,000, highlighting the immense demand and activity in land transactions.
“Court cases drag on for 20-25 years. No working person, whether in the bank, police, or private sector, can afford to fight for two decades,” he said with confidence.
At the registry offices in Danapur and Bihta, agents line up at the premises, offering fake backdated rent receipts for any disputed land. They cost anywhere between Rs 10,000 and 20,000.
The overwhelming workload at the Danapur registry office demanded that it should be divided into two wings—Danapur and Bihta—in 2022. The combined number of registries processed at these offices in 2024 surpassed 16,000, highlighting the immense demand and activity in land transactions.
Once multiple claims with these fabricated receipts are submitted to the circle officer’s office, the matters get compounded. “Since 2018, we have received 71,307 cases, out of which we have disposed of 68,544. We are still working on the remaining ones,” Chandan Kumar, the circle officer, told ThePrint.
“That’s why the circle officer’s chair is one of the most loved-to-hate posts in Bihar,” Kumar said. “Those who aren’t satisfied with our judgments often appeal to the DCLR (Deputy Collector Land Reforms office) officer, challenging the verdicts on their cases.”
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Janta Darbar, the crackdown
Every Saturday, Circle Officers (CO) and Station House Officers (SHO) across the state hold Janata Darbars, specifically to address and resolve land disputes.
“In our ongoing fight, we have identified over a thousand land mafia. We will attach their properties and confiscate them to make an example out of them,” said DGP Vinay Kumar.
Bhanu Pratap Singh, a 2021 batch IPS officer, who was posted as ASP Danapur, recently, has been cracking down on the nexus, carrying out arrests and raids.
“We recover arms, or fabricated rent receipts, or stamp papers related to land,” Singh said, adding he had been holding meetings with builders in the area, urging them to refuse extortion demands from the land mafias.
A Patna-based builder said that immense profits in real estate makes sure that even after jailed multiple times, a mafia is not going to turn into a saint and will likely return to the same activities.
In our ongoing fight, we have identified over a thousand land mafia. We will attach their properties and confiscate them to make an example out of them.
Bihar DGP Vinay Kumar
The state has also amended certain sections of the Control of Crimes Act in 2024, as a preventative measure in land mafia’s cases.
“Earlier, the mafias would secure bail and continue operating in their areas. But the amended Section 3 will prevent their entry to the districts for a certain period,” explained ASP Singh. “We’ve come to know that even many builders are being coerced into paying extortion money, also known as ‘rangdari’ locally,” ASP Singh said.
The state’s RERA head Vivek Singh previously served as additional chief secretary in the revenue and land reforms department. During his tenure there, he began the digitisation of land records in 2022.
“The digitisation, though it has opened Pandora’s box, has at least put the records online,” he claimed. The civil courts in Bihar found themselves overwhelmed with land dispute cases ever since the digitisation process began. Once the records were digitised, they were finalised once and for all. Even minor errors, such as spelling mistakes or inaccuracies in plot mapping, had to be corrected. This led to a surge in land-related litigation in Bihar.
IAS Jai Singh, the current Secretary of the Revenue and Land Reforms Department, acknowledged the turmoil but remained optimistic. He predicted that the chaos would soon settle down, noting that 67 per cent of the land records had already been digitised. He estimated that the remaining records would be completed in the next seven to eight months.
“We have taken action against around 100 circle officers across various districts in the last one year,” he said. This included suspensions, salary holds, and the imposition of penalties for corruption. He pointed out that the land records were often managed by lower-ranking officials, which has contributed to the widespread corruption, and challenges.
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Land and revenge wars
Bihar’s land disputes often turn into bloody wars. And even the land dealers aren’t immune to such violence. Six shots were fired at 60-year-old Paras Rai outside his Saguna Naya Tola home in Patna on 28 November 2024.
Police investigation revealed he was killed over a disputed 22 kattha land in Saguna More. The FIR filed by Pramod Kumar, son of Paras Rai, named nine individuals alleging his father’s murder was carried out at the behest of Shambhu Rai, in collaboration with some builders, who have been trying to grab their home. Shambhu Rai is another land mafia and is related to Paras Rai.
“We discovered that the family, who claimed Paras Rai had forcibly taken their land, sought revenge,” ASP Singh, whose team cracked the case, said.
Paras Rai’s elder brother Kedar Rai was a dreaded land mafia too, operating between the posh Bailey road and the Danapur suburb. And he too had met the same fate. He was killed in 2018.
Less than a month after Paras Rai’s murder, another big name in the world of land mafia met a violent end. Ranjit Yadav alias Dahi Gop was murdered around 8 pm on 21 December 2024 while returning to his home in Pethia Bazar in Danapur Cantonment area.
Dahi Gop rose over Patna’s crime landscape by challenging one of Bihar’s most notorious land mafias, Rit Lal Yadav, who rules the Danapur area. Gop had earned respect by helping families reclaim their land from Rit Lal’s men.
Dahi Gop, his wife claimed, was aspiring a BJP ticket in the Assembly election scheduled later this year. Rit Lal, an RJD MLA, rose in politics through muscle power, money, and land grabbing in the Danapur area. He is regarded as a godfather to land mafias such as Dhiraj Kumar and Santosh Kumar Bharti, who often use his name to extort money from builders.
Once upon a time in Patna, entire colonies were built by gun-wielding land mafias who took the cooperative societies route to make new settlements and their empires. Danapur’s present is Rajeev Nagar and Nepali Nagar’s past. It was an earlier phase of the capital’s expansion. In the 1980s and 1990s, these areas came up on farmers’ lands.
“He had accumulated political wealth in terms of voters. In the next Assembly elections, if he had contested, he would have ousted Rit Lal,” claimed Priyanka Kumari, 36, wife of Dahi Gop, in an interview with ThePrint. Although she didn’t name anyone in the FIR, she alleged it was Rit Lal Yadav, along with Bunty Gupta and Subhash Yadav—both land mafias—who orchestrated her husband’s murder.
“Why does every challenger to the mafia meet this fate,” Kumari cried in grief.
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Past is present
Once upon a time in Patna, entire colonies were built by gun-wielding land mafias who took the cooperative societies route to make new settlements and their empires. Danapur’s present is Rajeev Nagar and Nepali Nagar’s past. It was an earlier phase of the capital’s expansion. In the 1980s and 1990s, these areas came up on farmers’ lands.
The state government had taken thousands of acres of land to establish colonies and paid the amount into the district treasury. The farmers refused the payment, took their case to the Supreme Court, but ultimately lost the case in 1984. Their years of protests bore no fruit.
In 1977, the Nirala Cooperative, established by Satyanarayan Singh, entered Rajeev Nagar.
“It was a time when the state was promoting cooperatives and supporting urbanisation and colonies,” said Sunil Singh, son of Satyanarayan Singh. He said his father had worked in the electricity board, then as a teacher, and ultimately as a postmaster before quitting his government job to establish the cooperative for social service. Satyanarayan Singh passed away in 2022 at the age of 83, but until then, he was known as a dreaded land mafia. Singh is said to be the man behind a lot of violence and bloodshed that unfolded in this part of Patna. He faced cases of government land grab, murder, and extortion.
“Satyanarayan Singh was a Bhojpuri poet at heart,” claimed Sunil Singh, who had earlier served as the Bihar head for Karni Sena. Sunil too was sent to jail in 2022 on charges of government land grabbing. He had also played a key role in demanding a CBI inquiry into the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide case. His wife is a Congress member.
Sitting in his three-story white mansion in Rajeev Nagar, Sunil said, “People call us mafia, but the real land mafia is the government, which can simply take anyone’s land by force and not even pay.”
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)