Arunachal govt suspends four officials, recommends DC’s suspension in land acquisition scam
Dibrugarh: The Arunachal Pradesh government on Wednesday suspended four government officials and recommended the suspension of the East Kameng Deputy Commissioner for their alleged involvement in a massive land acquisition scam in East Kameng district.
The officials include Deputy Commissioner (DC) Himangsu Nigam (IAS), Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Abhinav Kumar (IFS), and three Heads of Departments (HODs) found to be involved in the scam.
The state government has also sought approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to suspend DC Himangsu Nigam.
According to an official press release issued by A.K. Singh, Secretary of the Department of Land Management, the requiring body initiated the land acquisition process for constructing the Frontier Highway Road stretch from Lada to Sarli (Pkg-I to V, Chainage 0.00 KM to 125.55 KM) under the RFCT LARR Act, 2013, based on its requisition letter.
A Ground Verification Board was constituted with the following members:
- Sri Himangsu Nigam (IAS), Deputy Commissioner – Chairman
- Abhinav Kumar (IFS), DFO – Member
- Miram Perme, DAO – Member
- C.K. Tayum, DHO – Member
- Takam Kechak, DLRSO – Member Secretary
“The government approved the award based on the Board’s recommendation and deposited the compensation amount with the Deputy Commissioner of East Kameng District on April 17, 2025,” the release stated.
However, the state later received numerous complaints alleging irregularities in the disbursement of compensation.
Complainants stated that the district administration failed to conduct a proper ground survey to assess land and property and did not form a multidisciplinary committee with officials from the Forest, Horticulture, Agriculture, and PWD departments for joint verification.
“They pointed out major disparities in the compensation amounts and claimed that the district administration ignored actual landowners and affected families while granting excessive and disproportionate compensation to non-existent assets and individuals,” Singh said.
Several affected families alleged that the authorities excluded their land and property from the final award and ignored their grievances.
They also claimed that officials failed to issue proper notices during the survey and the claims-and-objections period and did not make compensation details public.
“Considering the serious nature of these complaints, the government constituted a Fact-Finding Committee (FFC) via Order No. LMD-13011/34/2023 dated August 13, 2025, under the chairmanship of the Commissioner (Transport), with the Chief Engineer (PWD Highway), Director of Land Management, Conservator of Forests, Director of Agriculture, Director of Horticulture, Director of Fisheries, and DLRSO HQ as members,” Singh said.
The government gave the committee 30 days to submit its report and later extended the deadline to November 30, 2025, after the committee requested additional time.
“The FFC submitted its interim report on November 4, 2025, revealing that the assessment team had listed non-existent assets for compensation and carried out wrongful, inflated, and fraudulent evaluations. The report directly accused the joint field survey team of serious irregularities,” the release added.
“Considering the irregularities found in the FFC’s interim report, the government immediately suspended the board members,” Singh stated.