Former Gandhinagar collector SK Langa

Gujarat High Court, through an important order, today clearly refused to grant regular bail to the former collector of Gandhinagar district, SK Langa, who is involved in the corruption case of crores of rupees in the Mulasana Panjarapol land scam of Gandhinagar district.

SK Langa in his bail application had submitted that the government had neither reconsidered nor annulled the relevant orders passed by him, meaning that his orders were valid and final.

However, the additional advocate general clarified the government’s stand and said that the state government has decided to review any orders issued by Langa and the necessary process is underway.

The bail was rejected by Justice MR Mengdey.

The High Court made an observation that the accused had misused his authority as a collector and committed an act against the interest of the state and the people for his personal gain.

The accused had passed orders for allotment of 30,431 square metres of land to the interested parties, which was owned by the government. A prima facie criminal offence is committed against Langa.

In a deep-rooted scam dating back to 1918, the land in Gandhinagar’s 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. 

Problems pile up for Langa

Additional advocate general Meetesh Amin presented the list of properties of SK Langa on the court record, revealing that the properties of Langa and his family members are more than ₹18 crore, much higher than Langa’s income.

Moreover, Suresh Gadhvi, Langa’s brother-in-law, in the statement dated July 24, 2023, stated that 10 to 12 days before Langa’s retirement on Sept 30, 2019, he told him that Rajendra Gadhvi, Amarsingh Raba, and another person would give him ₹85 lakh.

The government thus clarified before the high court with this evidence that SK Langa had obtained ₹85 lakh through illegal bribe/corruption and favoured the interested persons.

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