E-Paper
Ludhiana: After HC orders, 329 booked over undervalued land deals
Ludhiana police, following a court order, booked 329 people for 159 undervalued land deals, causing losses to the state, but no revenue officials were charged.
Acting on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC), the Ludhiana police have booked at least 329 people involved in 159 “undervalued” land deals. The land transactions were registered in Ludhiana East sub-division between 2016 and 2019. Interestingly, the police have booked only the sellers and buyers only. No revenue official has been booked.
A total of 296 such land deals had surfaced which were registered “undervalued” which caused a large-scale loss to the state exchequer. During the hearing of a case, the HC had ordered the police to register FIRs in 159 cases within three days of receiving its orders. In the remaining 134 cases, the court ruled that proceedings under Section 47-A of the Stamp Act, relating to determination of deficient stamp duty, must be carried out and completed within four weeks.
The court was informed that three cases stand on a different footing. In one case, no deficiency in stamp duty was found, while appeals in two others cases have already been filed before the divisional commissioner. The matter has been listed for further hearing on April 22.
During the hearing, the counsel submitted that nearly 2.5 lakh sale deeds were registered in the area and that each document would have to be examined manually to identify discrepancies in stamp duty payments.
The directions were issued while hearing a writ petition filed by whistleblower Subhash Kundra alias Katty, a resident of Sector 32-A, Chandigarh Road, Ludhiana, who has been pursuing the issue since 2016. He had earlier submitted several representations to the police, Vigilance Bureau and the district administration, alleging large-scale loss to the state exchequer due to undervaluation of properties. Kundra also claimed that he had received threats and was even assaulted for raising the issue.
On the previous hearing on February 9, an additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) had informed the court that FIRs would be registered in all 296 cases and a thorough investigation would be conducted.
District revenue officer (DRO) Girjinder Singh, who was also present in the court on February 9, had assured that he would personally examine the matter and submit a status report on the next date of hearing. He also undertook to look into the reasons why deficient stamp duties were not recovered in the 296 cases.
Assistant commissioner of police (Industrial Area-A) Inderjit Singh stated that the FIR was registered on the statement of the sub-registrar (east). The police have booked the accused under Sections 420, 177, 120 B of the Indian Penal Code and Section 82 of Registration Act. When asked about non-inclusion of any revenue official’s name in the FIR, the ACP said an investigation was being carried out and more names would be added, if necessary.
Meanwhile, Katty stated that since he has been pursuing the case, the police should lodge the FIR on the basis of his statement. He added that the officials of the revenue department were also involved in such land deals. He also raised questions on the district administration, especially the revenue officials, stating that though the matter had been pending in the court for the past 10 years, no action was taken against the errants.
