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Vigilance books retired cop for cheating in 2007 Abohar land-grab case in Punjab
The vigilance has indicted municipal council officials of negligence in mutation of land that was originally allocated in 1961 for increasing the storage capacity of water tanks in the district.
More than two years after Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh ordered the vigilance bureau to probe grab of prime government land at Abohar in Fazilka district in June 2017, the bureau booked a retired cop, Gurdit Singh, on Saturday. The land is valued at around ₹80 crore and the scam dates back to 2007.
The vigilance has indicted municipal council officials of negligence in mutation of land that was originally allocated in 1961 for increasing the storage capacity of water tanks in the district.
“Following negligence on the part of council officials, the mutation of said land was not done. In addition, acquisition notification was issued only for 7.26 acre against the required 9.25 acre. The then executive officer of the council, Diwan Chand, bartered 1.8 kanal land with 5-kanal land to construct a road, in spite of the fact that this 1.8 kanal was part of the civic body land that was acquired in 1961,” the vigilance adds in its FIR.
The report goes on to add, “A commercial site was also awarded to Gurdit in connivance with MC officials. We are probing four more such cases of land grab. One of these could involve a relative of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.”
Gurdit has been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document). The role of others, including, Chand, is under vigilance scrutiny. Ferozepur vigilance SSP could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
“During the SAD-BJP regime, authorities under the influence of the accused turned a blind eye to land grab,” said Sunil Jakhar, president, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, who has been raising the issue since 2011.
“When the Congress was in power in the state from 2002-2007, we tried to get back ownership of the land. We even filed an appeal in court. With the change of guard, the SAD-BJP government avoided pursuing the case for a decade from 2007-2017,” Jakhar alleged.
