Entry fee at Sector 26 Grain Market: Chandigarh Police blame UT admn for delay in probe

Sector-26 SHO submits in court that Chandigarh admn failed to respond to queries about persons supervising the Grain Market and its parking management

Appearing before the Punjab and Haryana high court, the police have blamed the Chandigarh administration for delay in probe into the FIR registered for illegal levy of entry fee at the Sector-26 grain market.

A petition was filed in the Punjab and Haryana high court in February, highlighting that parking fee was being levied at Grain Market’s entry points, irrespective of where the vehicles were headed. (HT Photo)

Sector-26 station house officer (SHO) Maninder Singh, who was summoned by the court, submitted that letters had been written to authorities of the Chandigarh administration as well as to the market committee to provide details of persons responsible for supervising the Grain Market and its parking management. However, that information had not come forth so far.

The SHO was summoned by the court after the petitioner’s counsel, Arpandeep Narula, highlighted in court that while an FIR had been registered against the contractor, no action had been taken against the officials responsible for day-to-day supervision of the contractor’s working.

Responding to the issues raised by the SHO, the UT’s counsel told the court that the letter written by the SHO had been replied to by the authorities and record handed over, and the response to some more queries by the police will be given very soon.

The case has now been adjourned for July fur further consideration.

The parking contractor, Mohammad Idrish Khan, was booked under Sections 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code on March 19 on court directions.

The directions came on the plea of one Amit Kumar Bansal who in February had alleged before the court that fee was being charged even from those living inside the market.

The contractor had been assigned only some particular slots for operation and management of paid parking. But he had been levying parking fees even at the market’s entry points, irrespective of where the vehicles were headed, it was alleged. On this, the high court had appointed court commissioners to submit a fact-finding report, which established that parking charges were being levied illegally, following which it had ordered registration of FIR on March 16.

The contract for operation and management of the parking sites at the grain market were allotted in October 2020.