The Mamata Banerjee government has ordered an inquiry to examine the legality of land deals involving athlete Pinki Pramanik, who is now out on bail after being accused of raping a woman.
State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim told reporters at the West Bengal secretariat on Monday that the Chief Executive Officer of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority had been asked to investigate whether the land given to the athlete by the previous government on lease could be sub-leased.
Last week, the controversy surrounding Ms. Pramanik took a new turn, with Sports Minister Madan Mitra suggesting that the police complaint against her could have been linked to a land deal gone sour.
“The State government had allotted three cottahs of land to several sportspersons and she [Ms. Pramanik] was one of the beneficiaries. The land is in an area of the city that is considered prime property,” Mr. Mitra said.
“The land was given to Pinki for personal purposes and not for making profit. If she sold it off for making profit, it is illegal. Anybody who goes to the spot will see a five-storey property coming up there. The name of the present owner can be found from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation records,” the Minister said.
Mr. Mitra also dragged in the names of the former athlete, Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, and her husband Avtar Singh into the allegation.
On Monday, Mr. Mitra said that while selective land allotments were made during the previous regime, several sportspersons had not received theirs. The State government would finalise within a week its own list of such sportspersons who should be allotted land, he said.
