By Mayukh Goswami (PNI)

Mangaldai :The issue of settlement of markets and commercial parking places under Mangaldai  Municipal Board which has already invited  media limelight in recent time , once again has drawn media attraction . This time the matter is even serious involving  the High Court . The Mangaldai Police already arrested three persons on  charges of misguiding the court with some  forged and tempered documents while filing a complaint  before the Guwahati High Court challenging the tender process for settlement of a commercial  parking lot at Mangaldai town. According to the investigating police officer the  arrested persons are namely a businessman of Ward Number 2 Lok Nath Das, a defaulter former lessee of the parking lot Talebuddin Ahmed, and Abdul Based of Ga-dhowa Chapori. All the three accused persons have been booked in connection with Mangaldai Police Station case Number 1133/18 under section 420/468/471 of Indian Penal Code following an FIR lodged by the Municipality authority on Friday  . The police first arrested Loknath Das (59)  the petitioner in the court and on the basis of his statement two of his above mentioned accomplices have been arrested.   After their production, the Judicial Court on Sunday remanded all of them  the judicial custody in Mangaldai District Jail, the source added.

According to the information collected from  official source in the local civic body on Monday , one of the accused persons Loknath Das vide a petition in Guwahati High court had challenged the tender process of the Mangaldai Municipality Board (MMB) to settle a commercial big vehicle parking place  namely Kharupetia-Khoirbari-Mazjikuchi . The municipal authority inviting tender  from genuine lessees reportedly decided   to settle the said big vehicle parking  in the name of Kamal Das, the highest bidder  with a bidding rate of just over  Rs. 8 lakhs for the period from October, 2018 to March 2019. But as the process was about to complete the selected bidder  Kamal Das in black and white  expressed his inability to run the parking lot at his quoted bid amount. The municipal authority then had to change their decision  as per the laid down procedure to make the settlement  in the name of Sahadev Das, the next highest bidder  fulfilling the necessary official norms with  the bid amount of Rs. 3.50 lakhs. In the mean time as the settlement process was about to be completed , Loknath Das challenged the tender process in the high court and managed to earn court injunction order . However  the alleged malafide intention of the petitioner effecting the govt revenue earning procedure came to light when the municipal authority during verification of the documents in the court on the hearing date on Thursday  found some forged and tempered official documents being submitted along with the petition to mislead the court . This led the municipal authority  to file police complaint on the next day requesting legal action against the accused person, the source added . It may well be mentioned that the tender process for settlement of commercial parking places  and  markets was revived recently  after a gap of almost fifteen years since 2003 following a direction of the High Court rejecting the challenge petition filed by six lessees including the arrested Talebuddin Ahmed . The new tender process has brought a ray of hope for an enhanced  revenue collection of several lakhs of rupees  of the Board , which had allegedly  been denied through an illegal practice of  extension of contract period favouring a section of dishonest  lessees  reportedly without the requisite  prior approval of the Government .