Ranchi, Aug 24 (PTI) The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday questioned Director General of Police (DGP) Ajay Kumar Singh about the rise in the crime graph in the state and asked him to file an affidavit.

Singh had appeared before a division bench of the high court in a suo motu case regarding land mafia trying to grab the land of a former Supreme Court judge in the capital.

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The bench of Justices S Chandrashekhar and Anubha Rawat Choudhary were hearing the petition when the court quizzed the top cop about the rise in crime.

The bench said fewer police patrol vehicles on city roads at night had led to rise in crime in the capital.

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The court ordered Singh to file an affidavit and explain what steps has been taken against the land mafia trying to grab the land of former Supreme Court judge Late MY Eqbal in the city.

Miscreants had allegedly broken the boundary wall of the judge's house on June 25 but were pushed back by police guards posted at his residence.

Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan defending the government and the DGP informed that police has taken some firm decisions to deal with the land mafia.

Land dealers with five or more criminal cases will be kept out of the district, while dealers with four cases will have to mark their attendance every fortnight before the local police station, the AG said.

Land brokers with three criminal cases will have to file a personal bond of maintaining law and order, the AG said.

A special investigating team of police has been constituted to look into cases against people accused of oppressing members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, crimes against women and cases of land grabbing, the AG said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)