The vigilance bureau on Tuesday arrested forest range officer, Budhlada, Sukhwinder Singh for alleged embezzlement of ₹45.69 lakh meant for cemented tree guards and ₹7 lakh for bamboo tree guards in connivance with the then divisional forest officer of Mansa and others.
The accused allegedly prepared fake bills of bogus firms and withdrew the money by diverting government funds to different bank accounts, a spokesperson of the vigilance bureau said. The bureau had registered a case under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code at VB Flying Squad police station at Mohali on June 6. The spokesperson said that during the investigation, it was found that Sukhwinder Singh was posted as Forest Range Officer Budhlada from November 2021, and Amit Chauhan, IFS, was also posted as division forest officer Mansa.
In the year 2021, under the compensatory afforestation scheme, the principal chief conservator, Punjab, had given an approval to forest range Mansa for procurement of 5,872 RCC. Treeguards, out of which 2537 tree guards were to be prepared by FRO, Mansa. Sukhwinder showed purchase of 2,537 cemented tree guards from two private firms in Sangrur and Patiala and obtained purchase bills from these firms. During the investigation about the GST numbers and contact numbers of these firms written on their bills, it was found that no firm exists with the present addresses, the spokesperson said. He added that total amount of the budget was withdrawn in cash on the request of Sukhwinder.