Punjab: Ex-IAS officer held in Rs. 250 crore land scam
Suspended IAS officer and former deputy commissioner Vikas Garg, who was on the run for few months after his alleged involvement in the Patiala land scam worth Rs 250 crore, was today arrested by the vigilance team. Ravinder Vasudeva reports.
Suspended IAS officer and former deputy commissioner Vikas Garg, who was on the run for few months after his alleged involvement in the Patiala land scam worth Rs 250 crore, was on Friday arrested by the vigilance team.
Preetam Singh, senior suprintendent of police (VB) Patiala, while confirming the development, said Garg will be produced in a local court in the afternoon.
However, the bureau is still to disclose the information from where Garg was arrested.
On November 9, last year, the VB had registered a case under sections 409, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B IPC and 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act at VB police station Patiala against Garg, then district revenue officer Rajbir Singh, then naib tehsildar GS Walia, Kanungo Pritpal Singh, Patwari Suresh Kumar and property dealers Ravdeep Singh, NP Singh, Devinder Singh Sandhu and purchasers Jaswant Singh and Yashpal Aggarwal.
Garg was Patiala DC when 6,000 sq yards of government land worth Rs 250 crore was allegedly sold to individuals in 2011.
The VB stated that the controversial land of chief medical office, which is about 6000 yards, was the land that Yashpal Aggarwal, Davinder Sandhu, Jaswant Singh, NP Singh and Rajbir Singh wanted to buy for which they had got a registry done using unfair means.
The registry was cancelled later on.
The buyers allegedly paid Rs two crore to Garg and Gurvinder Singh to get the registry done. As per allegations, out of this amount, Rs 80 lakh was paid to Garg, the remaining money was kept by Walia and he later on distributed Rs 2 to 5 lakh to Patwari, the revenue officer and Pritpal Singh.
After dismissal of his plea to quash FIR by Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday, Garg was left with little options.
