SHILLONG, Jan 20 � Former Meghalaya Additional Advocate General, SP Mahanta and his wife Vennetta Kharsyntiew were chargesheeted by the police for alleged forging and cheating in a land grabbing case.
Superintendent of Police (City) Vivek Syiem said that the trial against Mahanta and his wife would begin soon.
Mahanta and his wife allegedly fraudulently grabbed a prime property here in the State Capital belonging to an NRI, Tushar Nath Bhattacharjee based in Sydney, Australia.
Bhattacharjee and his two siblings claimed in their legal suit filed in 2004 that Mahanta and his wife encroached on their property, measuring 14,285 sq feet, at Lower Lachumiere by forging Bhattacharjee�s signature and through other fraudulent means, while he was abroad.
The High Court of Meghalaya upheld a District Court ruling, which said Mahanta and his wife�s possession of the property in question is illegal. The District Court further said that the appellants, Bhattacharjee and his sisters, are entitled to get back the possession of their property.
The Meghalaya government had removed Mahanta as the Additional Advocate General after the Opposition parties raised the issue and demanded his removal. Mahanta was later reinstated after he got relief from a lower court, but was then again removed from the post in 2013 when the District Court termed his possession of the property as illegal.
