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Police file challan against four in Chandigarh property grab case
In 2017, the accused had kidnapped and tortured Rahul Mehta, the sole heir of the 338 square yards house in Sector 37, to usurp it in March 2019
Nearly two months after the first arrests in the Sector-37 property grab case, the Chandigarh Police on Friday filed a chargesheet against four accused, including a suspended inspector, a journalist and a property dealer.
In the challan, police have also invoked the Prevention of Corruption (PCA) Act against the accused – journalist Sanjeev Mahajan, realtor Manish Gupta, suspended Chandigarh Police inspector Rajdeep Singh and Satpal Dagar, brother of a UT deputy superintendent of police.
They are accused of kidnapping and torturing Rahul Mehta, 48, the only surviving heir of his family, in April 2017 to secure the general power of attorney of his 338 square yards house and selling it to Manish’s brother Saurabh Gupta for ₹2.9 crore in March 2019.
Running into 18,132 pages, the challan has listed 78 witnesses. It will be taken up for hearing on May 3.
Sanjeev and Manish were the first to be arrested in the case on March 2, followed by Satpal on March 4 and inspector Rajdeep on March 12.
Apart from them, police had also booked liquor baron Arvind Singla and businessman Khalendra Singh Kadyan, to whom the property’s GPA was transferred, slain bouncer Surjit Singh, and Ashok Arora, Shekhar and Daljit Singh, who purportedly acted as witnesses in the sale of the house.
After the transfer of the GPA, Rahul was abandoned at a stud farm in Gujarat in June 2017, before being shifted from one charitable home to another in Maharashtra, Delhi and Rajasthan, where he was finally traced. He is now in police protection.
IPC’s Section 328 added on victim’s statement
The challan has been filed under Sections 328, 331, 344, 365, 386, 419, 420, 452, 464, 465, 466, 467, 468, 471, 473, 474, 477, 166, 201 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 13(1), (2) of the Prevention Of Corruption Act.
Police added Section 328 (causing hurt by means of poison with intent to commit an offence) of the IPC against the accused after Rahul alleged that he was intoxicated by the accused.
In his statement to the court, Rahul had said he was the sole owner of the house, which he never sold to anyone. But, Sanjeev, Surjit and two others forcibly entered his house and occupied the upper floor in April 2017. They assaulted him and locked him up in a room, and kept torturing and threatening to kill him, he alleged. After forcibly securing his signature on blank papers and cheques, Surjit left him at a stud farm in Bhuj, Gujarat.
Victim’s cousin settled abroad also among witnesses
Police have listed Rahul’s cousin Rajiv, who is settled in the UK, as a witness. Rahul’s mother (since deceased) had transferred a part of the property in question to her sister, who also died later. Thereon, there was a dispute between Rahul and her son Rajiv, who moved the high court.
Rajiv had told the police that he visited the house in 2017 to discuss the court case with Rahul, but met Surjit there and was told that Rahul was not at home. Rajiv had later also met Sanjeev, who told him that Rahul was safe at some place and they were taking care of him. Sanjeev further claimed that Rahul had transferred his share of the house to his name, and offered ₹25 lakh to Rajiv to withdraw the court case.
Four accused at large
On March 26, Chandigarh Police had announced a cash reward of ₹50,000 for information leading to the arrest of four accused – Arvind, Saurabh, Khalendra and Gurpreet Singh Mani, but they remain at large. According to police, after the property’s GPA was transferred in favour of Khalendra and Arvind, Saurabh had purchased it and Gurpreet had acted as a witness.
