Case against Gurung kin

TT, Calcutta, Aug. 4: Police have registered cases against Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung's two children for allegedly encroaching on a tea garden and obtaining land documents fraudulently to set up a public school at Malidhura in Darjeeling

The Darjeeling police registered the cases against Gurung's son, Avinash, and daughter Nanda yesterday in their capacity as members of the Kanchenjungha Trust that runs the CBSE-affiliated school.

Gurung used to organise many programmes of the Morcha at the Kanchenjungha Public School which has 400 students from Class I to Class VIII and is spread over 2.14 acres.

A senior police officer said: "We have started a case based on a public complaint. It has been alleged that the school has been set up on an encroached plot belonging to a tea garden. Preliminary investigations suggest that fraudulent means were used to obtain land documents. So, a case of forgery and cheating among others has been started."

The police said cases had been specifically started against Nanda, Avinash and school principal Sang Lamu Sherpa.

Independent sources said Sherpa had resigned from the school "three four months back"..

The police alleged that the school had come up on a plot that belonged to Vah Tukvar Tea Garden. A survey by the state government had found that its land had been encroached.

Told about the case, Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the Morcha said: "As far as I know, the school was providing free schooling to many students from several tea gardens and those from the Dooars and the Terai. The case is an example of highhandedness by the state government."