Ghaziabad: Nine persons were booked under sections of the Gangsters Act in Ghaziabad on Tuesday for allegedly usurping government land and vacant plots in various parts of the district. An FIR has been registered against these nine persons at the Vijay Nagar police station following an inquiry conducted by the police.According to the police, the accused are involved in organised land-grabbing and used to intimidate people who resisted them. The accused have been identified as Prithvi Singh, Jeetendra Singh, Gopal, Gajendra, Vikas, Vicky, Mohit Yadav, Rajeev and Sandeep Jindal. Mohit reportedly has familial ties with the Yadav clan of UP. The case was registered under Section 2/3 of the Act following an inquiry led by Vijay Nagar SHO Neeraj Singh."A case of land grabbing had been registered against these in 2016 too. They conduct land-grabbing activities in an organised manner and function in the form of a gang. They have intimidated and threatened people in the past too whenever challenged in their activities," SP (City) Akash Tomar told TOI.The district administration also ordered strict action against usurpers of government land and plots during a meeting of the Anti-Land Mafia Task Force on Tuesday. During the course of the meeting, GMC officials said that they have identified 877 encroachers to whom notices have been issued to vacate the GMC's properties. The civic body said that it has so far registered FIRs against 162 land-grabbers.Directions were issued to officials by DM Ministhy S to take steps towards reclaiming land legally belonging to their respective departments from the clutches of grabbers failing which the officials concerned will be treated as co-accused in FIRs. Directions were also issued to de-notify arms licences issued to the land mafia in the district.

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