Hoshiarpur land scam: Vigilance bureau probe not in consonance with FIR allegations: Court
Ludhiana court observed that investigation conducted by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in the multi-crore Hoshiarpur land scam case and the allegations in the FIR are not in consonance with each other
The additional district and sessions court, Ludhiana, observed that the investigation conducted by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in the multi-crore Hoshiarpur land scam case and the allegations in the FIR are not in consonance with each other whereas the agency filed its cancellation or closure report in the case by mainly relying upon the reply filed by the then sub-divisional magistrate and accused Anand Sagar Sharma and the report of the local commissioner.
The 20-page judgment of the special judge, Ajit Atri, was uploaded on a website on Friday while the court rejected the cancellation or closure report filed by the vigilance bureau on April 5. “However, there are specific allegations of criminal conspiracy among the accused and causing loss to the government. The investigation conducted so far falls short of the standard for the complete investigation,” the court observed.
Meanwhile, the court further mentioned 13-points in the judgment and said the investigation had not been conducted on material aspects of the case. The points mentioned by the court were whether the change of the nature of land in question influenced the rates of compensation, if yes, then how much loss was caused by this to the state, whether the proper procedure was followed by CALA in the determination of the compensation to be paid to the landowners? On what basis, the amount of compensation was calculated. Whether the criteria followed for deciding the market value of the lands was based on the parameters provided by the law and others.
“The entire matter requires further investigation particularly on the aspects as enumerated above. The report under Section 173 of CrPC has to make out reasons to the conclusion reached by the IO rather than summary proceedings to reach at a conclusion without investigating material aspects of the case,” the court said.
On June 14, 2019, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau filed a closure report at the Ludhiana court in the case almost eight days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a chargesheet against six people who were accused in the matter with the special PMLA court in Jalandhar.
In February 2017, Punjab civil services (PCS) officer Anand Sagar Sharma, the then Hoshiarpur SDM, along with then Shiromani Akali Dal leaders from Hoshiarpur Satwinderpal Singh, Avtar Singh Johal, Harpinder Singh Gill besides local businessman Parteek Gupta, his father Pardeep Gupta, Jaswinderpal Singh and others, were booked by the vigilance bureau in the Hoshiarpur land scam case.