Pathankot land scam: VB books ex-panchayat officer, 7 others

Updated on: Aug 11, 2023 12:24 am IST

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The Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) on Thursday booked a retired district development and panchayat officer (DDPO), Kuldeep Singh, who was also holding the charge of ADC (D), Pathankot, and seven others in connection with the panchayat land scam involving 734 kanal and one marla. Two women beneficiaries have been arrested in the case

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Chandigarh : The Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) on Thursday booked a retired district development and panchayat officer (DDPO), Kuldeep Singh, who was also holding the charge of ADC (D), Pathankot, and seven others in connection with the panchayat land scam involving 734 kanal and one marla. Two women beneficiaries have been arrested in the case.

The Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) on Thursday booked a retired district development and panchayat officer (DDPO), Kuldeep Singh, who was also holding the charge of ADC (D), Pathankot, and seven others in connection with the panchayat land scam involving 734 kanal and one marla. Two women beneficiaries have been arrested in the case.

An official spokesperson of the VB said that Kuldeep had announced a decision in favour of private individuals in a case of Veena Parmar and others versus Gram Panchayat of Gol village in Narot Jaimal Singh block of Pathankot district on February 27, 2023. With this decision, the ADC had paved the way to transfer the 734 kanal and one marla of shamlat land to some private individuals, the spokesperson said in a statement.

An FIR was registered on August 9 under Sections 409, 420, 120-B of IPC and 13 (1) (A), 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act at police station VB, Amritsar range, against Kuldeep, a resident of Maqboolpura (Amritsar), and beneficiaries of the decision, including Veena Parmar of Krishna Nagar, Hoshiarpur, Inderdeep Kaur of Ferozepur city, Bharati Banta of Krishna Nagar, Pathankot, Tarsem Rani of Gurdaspur, Balwinder Kaur of Taragarh (Pathankot), Manjit Kaur of Taragarh (Pathankot), and Parveen Kumari of Kalanaur (Gurdaspur).

The spokesperson said that two accused --- Inderdeep Kaur and Bharati Banta --- who benefitted by around 29 acres of panchayat land, have been arrested. A hunt has been launched to arrest the remaining accused. Further investigation is on in the case, the spokesperson said.