Author: Ramu Bhagwat
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 23, 2006
Taking cognizance of a letter written by a
farmer and treating it as a PIL, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court
on Monday issued notices to the family of sitting Congress MLA from Khamgaon
in Buldana district Dilip Sananda, against whom there are over 40 complaints
related to illegal money lending and dispossessing indebted farmers of their
lands.
A two-judge bench issued notices before admission
to the state, Buldana DSP and the Sananda family. The family hit headlines
early this month when it was alleged the MLA had used his proximity with CM
Vilasrao Deshmukh to intervene in the police probe into cases against him.
Orders were allegedly issued to the district collector and DSP to go slow
on the cases against Sananda.
The Buldana police had registered FIRs in
four cases against the family for illegally lending money On Monday, the court
took note of a letter received from a farmer whose identity was not disclosed
for security reasons-which said the police were reluctant to register complaints
against the influential family In a brief order, the court observed it was
a serious matter relating to a poor farmer and that charges of misuse of power
had been levelled against the sitting MLA. The court gave the respondent time
till July 28 to comply with the notices.
With farmers of Vidharbha under severe financial
stress, a majority of them turn to local money lenders. The farmers pay huge
interests and when they fail to repay the loan, they lose their lands to the
lenders. Sananda's case came to light because of his clash with home minister
R R Patil, who wants to take action against MLA and his family.
