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Patiala land scam: VB’s case falls flat, all accused acquitted
The Punjab VB had in 2012 registered an FIR wherein IAS officer Vikas Garg was also framed, who remained in judicial custody for three months for his alleged involvement in the Patiala land scam
The much hyped Patiala land scam case has fallen flat as the Punjab vigilance bureau failed to prove its case in the court, leading to acquittal of all accused.
The vigilance bureau had in 2012 registered an FIR wherein IAS officer Vikas Garg was also framed, who remained in judicial custody for three months.
The initial inquiry was conducted by IAS officer SR Ladhar and later, the then chief minister, Parkash Singh Badal, had ordered the vigilance bureau to register an FIR in the matter.
It is pertinent to mention here that divisional commissioner SR Ladhar had indicted Vikas Garg, other revenue officials and even former divisional commissioner GS Grewal for illegal sale of government properties.
The sale deed related to nearly 6,000 square yards of prime land in Patiala was presented before the district registration authorities. In the sale deed, owner of the land was shown as Kiraninder Singh, a scion of Patiala royal family, and the khasra number of the property was mentioned as 104.
However, the boundaries of the property, as mentioned in the sale deed, indicated it to be the land owned by the government and occupied by offices of civil surgeon and education department, which actually falls under khasra number 103.
The vigilance bureau had listed 45 witnesses in the case, including SR Ladhar, vigilance inspector general V Neerja, SSP Pritam Singh, former deputy commissioner Deepinder Singh and tehsildar AS Thind.
Ladhar, Deepinder and Thind had said that the land belonged to the government.
The sale deed was not accepted by Garg’s predecessor Deepinder. Even a committee under the Samana SDM had concluded that it was a government land, but Garg and other officials ignored this report and allowed the sale deed, which was executed on the basis of general power of attorney that was annulled by Kiraninder Singh, the vigilance bureau claimed.
Senior vigilance officers like Neerja, retired DSP KD Sharma and others also supervised the inquiry and 40 more officials were examined in the court, but the prosecution failed to prove its case.
Due to the weak case, the government had denied the prosecution sanction of Garg. Now, the private persons and other officials stand acquitted.
Advocate Sumesh Jain said, “The court of additional sessions judge RK Jain today acquitted all the accused in the FIR registered under sections 409, 420, 467, 468 and 120-B of the IPC and 13 of the Prevention of corruption Act. The court has acquitted Yashpal Aggarwal, Devinder Sandhu, Jaswant Singh, Ravdeep Singh, and revenue officials Suresh Kumar, Prithpal Singh and Rajbir Singh. All persons were acquitted as the prosecution failed to prove that the said building, which was sold, was on the government’s land.”
Meanwhile, the acquitted persons said they were harassed and wrongly booked, and everyone had to remain in judicial custody as the case was based on wrong facts.
