E-Paper
23 members, employees of Maharwal Khewaji Trust booked for forging Faridkot erstwhile maharaja’s will
Those booked include grandson and granddaughter of Sikh princely state’s last ruler Harinder Singh Brar
Faridkot: A month after the Punjab and Haryana high court ruled that the will of the last ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Faridkot, Harinder Singh Brar, was forged in favour of the Maharwal Khewaji Trust on June 1, 1982, a case was registered against 23 of its members and employees.
The case of fraud was registered on the complaint of Brar’s younger daughter Amrit Kaur against the 23 trust members, including chairman Jai Chand Mehtab, who is also the son of her elder sister, Deepinder Kaur, and a prince of the erstwhile royal family of West Bengal.
The erstwhile ruler’s granddaughter and Mehtab’s sister, Nisha D Kher, who is vice-chairperson of the trust, is also named in the FIR.
The other accused include trust CEO Jagir Singh Sran, trust legal adviser Navjot Singh Wahniwal, Paramjit Singh Sandhu, Santosh Kumar, Jaspal Kaur, Bhushan Sharma, Shankarpal, Baljit Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Babu Ram Pal, Madan Mohan Devgan, Naresh, BS Sandhu, Sheparwah Singh, Raghubir Singh, Resham Singh, Kuldeep Chand, Barjinder Pal Singh Brar, Jatinder Pal Singh, SK Kataria and then trust CEO Lalit Mohan Gupta, who is chairman of the improvement trust, Faridkot, at present.
A case was registered under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property); 465 (forgery); 467 (forgery of valuable security, will); 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating); 471 (using as genuine a forged document); and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC at the city police station in Faridkot.
Senior superintendent of police Swarndeep Singh said that on the basis of the high court order Amrit Kaur filed a complaint and a case was registered after taking legal advice. “She has stated in her complaint that the accused have committed forgery by preparing a fake will of Faridkot ruler,” he said.
The high court had upheld a Chandigarh court’s order last month, awarding majority share in the ₹20,000-crore property of Harinder Singh Brar to his two daughters —Amrit Kaur and Deepinder Kaur. The court held that descendents of Manjit Inder Singh, the last ruler’s brother, would get their mother Mohinder Kaur’s share.
As of the will in dispute, the court observed, trustees conspired to create the will to take over the property. “The will is proved to be forged, fictitious, fabricated and shrouded with suspicious circumstances,” the court order said.
FARIDKOT ROYAL DISPUTE
Crowned maharaja at the age of three in 1918, Harinder Singh Brar was the last ruler of the Faridkot estate and was married to Narinder Kaur. The royal couple had three daughters, Amrit Kaur, Deepinder Kaur and Maheepinder Kaur and a son, Harmohinder Singh.
The son died in a road accident in 1981.
One of the rulers of the seven Sikh princely states, Harinder died in 1989 and left behind prime properties in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana and Chandigarh.
Maheepinder Kaur died a spinster, while Deepinder died while the legal battle was on. Amrit Kaur lives in Chandigarh.
The property dispute started soon after Harinder Singh Brar died in October 1989 after a will surfaced in which he had bequeathed his properties to the Maharwal Khewaji Trust, with his daughter Deepinder as its head.
The property dispute reached the high court in 2018 after a Chandigarh court declared the trust void and gave property to the daughters. In June this year, the high court upheld the Chandigarh court’s order.
