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Jalandhar: Gang involved in grabbing land of elderly NRIs busted, 5 booked
Punjab Police's NRI wing filed FIRs against five for cheating NRIs over land deals, involving forgery and extortion of crores. Accused are on the run.
The NRI wing of Punjab Police has registered two FIRs against five persons involved in grabbing a prime chunk of lands owned by NRIs based in the United States and United Kingdom (UK), officials said.
The two FIRs have been registered on the charges of cheating, trespassing, forgery, criminal conspiracy and forging documents at Jalandhar’s NRI police station on the complaint of two NRIs. The estimated amount of these properties runs in crores, with elderly NRIs settled abroad for past decades being the main targets, the officials added.
In one of the FIRs registered on the complaint of 80-year-old UK resident Paramjit Singh Takhar on July 3 at Jalandhar’s NRI police station, the accused have been identified as Vikas Sharma, alias Cheenu, his two sons Kartik Sharma and Vansh Sharma and Shalinder Syal, all residents of Jalandhar, and Tarwinder Singh, a resident of Amritsar.
In another FIR, registered on the complaint of New Jersey resident Inderjit Kaur (75) on July 1, police have nominated both Vikas and his son Kartik. All the accused are presently on the run.
The cases have been registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (for making forged documents), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged), 448 (house trespassing) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
AIG NRI wing Harkamal Preet Singh Khakh said the accused had been harassing and financially exploiting NRIs, mainly the elderly, by forging sale deeds, faking financial receipts, obtaining decrees or stay orders from the local courts on the basis of forged documents and revenue papers.
“By adopting this modus operandi, the accused used to threaten NRIs and tried to extort huge sums from the complainants, besides trespassing into the prime properties to take illegal possession,” AIG Khakh said.
Khakh added that the accused reportedly ditched multiple NRIs and the investigation is on. “Both these FIRs were registered following a detailed probe into the complaints received by Punjab NRIs Commission. The accused have been booked under non-compoundable charges (criminal offences that cannot be settled through a compromise or agreement) and they will arrested soon. We have also summoned witnesses mentioned in the sale deeds,” Khakh added.
In his complaint, NRI Paramjit, who resides in the UK’s Middlesex, stated that he had signed the sale deed with accused Vikas and Kartik for the sale of his 35 marlas of plot in Jalandhar’s police lines area on February 2, 2024.
As per the complaint, Paramjit agreed to sell his land at ₹23.50 lakh per marla ( ₹8.22 crore for 35 marlas) and the accused were to pay him ₹1 crore as earnest money.
The complainant said he had received ₹50 lakh as earnest money in his bank account, while the remaining ₹50 lakh was to be paid in cash.
“The date for the execution and registration of sale deeds was fixed on or before November 15, last year. However, the accused Vikas and others failed to execute the sale deed on the said date following which the complainant returned in November last year,” the complainant said.
The FIR states that Paramjit came back to India in March this year and found that accused Vikas had forged the sale deed using the original stamp paper of the actual agreement.
“Besides forging other documents, the accused Vikas and Kartik altered the rate of the property to ₹13.50 lakh per marla. The forged sale deed falsely mentioned that an amount was paid to the applicant in cash and the date of the execution and registration of the sale deed changed to April 18, 2024, instead of November 15, 2024,” the FIR added.
It added not only this, Vikas allegedly produced the said forged sale deed agreement before the office of sub-registrar, Jalandhar on April 18, 2024, and thereafter filed a civil case in the court for getting the sale deed executed in his favour. The accused managed to obtain an ex-parte decree from the court which was ultimately decided by the court on March 7, this year,” the FIR said. The complainant had already challenged the decree awarded in Vikas’ favour and the case is sub-judice.
In another FIR, registered in the complaint of Inderjit Kaur, it was stated that accused Vikas and Kartik Sharma entered into a sale agreement on February 8, 2024, with her for sale of her 108 marlas of land in Jalandhar’s Pholriwal village at ₹6 lakh per marla (estimated ₹6.48 crore).
“As per the agreement of agreement, the complainant received ₹1.25 crore as earnest money and the date for sale deed execution was set on September 8, 2024,” the FIR said.
The police probe found that Kartik forged financial receipts in which it was mentioned that an additional payment of ₹2 crore was made on March 26, last year. Based on these fake receipts, the accused managed to severe ex-parte decree in his favour and started threatening the NRI family to extort money.
“In both the cases, accused trespassed into properties of the complainants using muscle power and tried to grab the prime chunks having huge commercial value,” a police official, privy to probe, said on condition of anonymity.
