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Non-payment of cane growers dues: VB arrests Phagwara-based sugar mill MD, wife, son
The VB has also registered a case against tehsildar, naib tehsildar, among 13 for making faulty revenue deeds to help sell mill land given on 99-year lease
The vigilance bureau on Saturday arrested Shiromani Akali Dal leader Jarnail Singh Wahid, along with his wife Rupinder Kaur and son Sandeep Singh were arrested from their residence at Khurampur village near Phagwara on Saturday in a case pertaining to non-payment of farmers’ dues in tune to ₹42 crore and falsely using government land for financial gains.
The VB has also registered a case against 13 persons including then tehsildar and naib tehsildar for allegedly colluding with mill functionaries by preparing faulty revenue deeds in order to use mill property and land for financial gain.
Wahid, a former chairman of Punjab Markfed, remained associated with the Golden Sandhar Sugar Mill, previously known as Wahid-Sandhar Sugar Mill, as managing director.
The district administration on Saturday also sealed the mill premises.
An FIR was registered under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly misusing and mortgaging 31.2 acres of land given on lease by the state government. The VB has also booked Parveen Chhiber, then tehsildar of Phagwara and presently posted in Nakodar, Pawan Kuman, naib tehsildar, mill directors Sukhbir Singh Sandhar, Jarnail Singh Wahid, Sandeep Singh Wahid and Harvinderjit Singh Sandhar, Aman Sharma, additional director, Manjit Singh Dhillon, Kuldeep Singh Sandhar and Jarnail’s wife Rupinder Kaur.
The case has been registered under sections 166 (public servant disobeying law), 177 (Knowingly furnishing false information to a public servant), 210 (fraudulently obtaining decree for sum not due), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and other sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.
As per the FIR, the state government had allotted 31.2 acres of land on lease to Jagatjit Singh Sugar Mills back in 1933 for 99 years on certain terms and conditions that it would not be transferable and mortgaged without having approval from the state government.
In 2000, Oswal Agro Mills Limited, a co-company of Jagatjit Singh Sugar Mill signed a pact with Wahid-Sandhar Mill and sublet the lease to it besides handing over all the rights to its functionaries without the approval of the government and other competent authorities. Moreover, no lease deed pertaining to it was registered and recorded with the revenue department.
“During the investigation, it came to the fore that the Wahid Sugar Mill mortgaged 31.3 acres of sugar mill land for ₹93.94 crore. The mill administrators also sold 6 kanal and 4 marlas of government land in 2019,” the FIR further adds.
Deceives 600 farmers with KCC cards
In another revelation, VB said the mill administrators not only failed to settle dues of ₹40.71 crore for the past four years but duped 600 farmers by fraudulently making their Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs).
As per VB officials, the mill administrators made 600 KCCs of farmers taking ₹3 lakh loan on each card which was deposited in the accounts of the cane growers.
The cane growers thought it to be payment towards their outstanding dues, but were shocked when a bank in Phagwara started sending notices to the farmers for non-payment of loan.
“The farmers are now receiving legal notices from a bank in Phagwara, urging them to repay KCC (Kisan Credit Card) loans totalling ₹3lakh each. The farmers have no idea that they have taken a loan from the bank,” the VB spokesperson said.
The VB added that now approximately 600 farmers are finding themselves tangled in KCC loan liabilities, in which the mill is a guarantor.
On August 21, taking note of non-payment to cane growers by Wahid-Sandhar Sugar Mills, the district administration issued a notice to the mill to vacate the properties attached by the office of SDM, Phagwara, in 2021.
The notice stipulated that the auction process of these properties was being initiated shortly so the said properties measuring 10 kanal 12 marlas and 07 kanal 06 marlas, including a kothi should be vacated at the earliest. On September 17, a seven-member price fixation committee under deputy commissioner Captain Karnail Singh was constituted to initiate the process of auctioning.
