Incarcerated former Gandhinagar collector IAS S K Langa was denied interim bail by the Gujarat High Court on Thursday.

Langa moved a bail plea on the grounds of processing a pensioner life certificate and pleaded that his family members would require his assistance in this.

Langa was arrested in July last year over corruption charges regarding the 2,200 bighas (880 acres) of the land meant for sheltering cows (panjrapol) in Mulasana, near Ahmedabad.

In this case, the prosecution argued, “A pensioner life certificate processing cannot be sustained as grounds for granting bail. This process can also be carried out from within the jail. The accused is jailed over serious charges, and considering their gravity, the interim bail cannot be granted to him at this stage.”

Langa resorted to withdrawing his application after Guj HC Justice Hasmukh D Suthar’s tough stance against his bail plea.

In a deep-rooted scam dating back to 1918, the land in Mulasana, given as a charity for the cow grazing on a 99-year leasehold, was bought by the scammers and the bogus documents were made for the same land by the officials and so-called leaders.

This piece of agricultural land was granted the label of being ‘NA’ (non-agricultural) by the then Gandhinagar collector S K Langa.

During his time as Collector till 2019, Langa misused his powers, and conducted a suo motu revision of Section 211 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879, to accommodate the corrupt beneficiaries.

The HC accepted the arguments made by the prosecution and dismissed the bail application.

Also read:

ACB arrests SK Langa on transfer warrant

Mulasana land scam: HC denies bail to SK Langa, govt to review his orders

SK Langa scam: Land donated by Muslim & Patel families for panjrapole seized by elites