Five booked for fraudulent entries in revenue records

Three made beneficiaries of relief against land acquired by NHAI even as they didn’t own land; 2 revenue officials among those booked

Five persons, including two revenue department officials, were booked for forgery after three persons were found to be fraudulently included in the list of beneficiaries for land acquired by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at Samrala and Ghulal.

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Deputy commissioner (DC) Pradeep Kumar Agrawal said SDM Ludhiana (west)-cum-land acquisition officer Amrinder Singh Malhi had noticed that when the NHAI acquired land at Samrala and Ghulal village of Ludhiana, the names of three persons were found to be fraudulently included in the list of beneficiaries even as they did not have any land in the said villages. The trio were identified as Anil Kumar, son of Dharampal, Vinay Kumar, son of Nahar Singh, and Rajesh Kumar, son of Hukam Singh.

A screening of records had revealed that payments of ₹51.74 lakh and ₹71.96 lakh were made to Anil Kumar, son of Dharampal. Similarly, payments of ₹1.04 crore to Vinay Kumar and ₹7.99 lakh to Rajesh Kumar were to be made but as soon as the matter came to light, their payments were stopped.

DC Agrawal informed that the false entries in assessment register and E-rolls had signatures of the patwari, kanugo and tehsildar concerned.

While proceedings have been initiated to suspend two patwaris, besides including their names in the FIR, the kanungo and tehsildar concerned are also under the scanner.

Officials say the involvement of NHAI officials and local politicians cannot be ruled out.

The case has been registered against Vinay Kumar, Anil Kumar, Rajesh Kumar, patwari Rakesh Kumar and patwari Dharminder Singh under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery
of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) ,471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 120-B (criminal
conspiracy).