E-Paper
Karnal police start probe in 5-yr-old land fraud case
Finally, the Karnal police have got going in a five-year-old case, in which a fraudulent deal involving 5.5-acre land worth more than Rs 6.8 crore was struck on the basis of a forged general power of attorney (GPA) registered in Jalandhar, Punjab.
Finally, the Karnal police have got going in a five-year-old case, in which a fraudulent deal involving 5.5-acre land worth more than Rs 6.8 crore was struck on the basis of a forged general power of attorney (GPA) registered in Jalandhar, Punjab.
Acting upon information received from the Jalandhar police, Karnal deputy commissioner (DC) Renu Phulia has directed police to take action against the accused in whose favour sale deeds had been registered on the basis of the forged GPA.
The police have got issued non-bailable warrants against accused Ram Niwas Jindal, Sandeep Somany, Rajender Kumar Somani, Raj Kumar and others, all residents of Delhi, while a Karnal court dismissed the anticipatory bail of Jindal a few days ago.
The Karnal police, which had registered a case in the context, have re-launched the investigation following a report from the economic offences division of the Jalandhar police. The report has details about the forged GPA and how it was used to register three sale deeds related to the Karnal land.
It is said that the modus operandi of the accused was to register the GPAs at the office of subregistrar, Jalandhar, through impersonation and forged records, and then selling it to more than one buyer. The matter came to light when a Delhi-based company found out that the Karnal land it was to buy had been registered in someone else's name. It had complained to the Jalandhar and Karnal police.
Police passed the buck
In 2012, the Punjab and Haryana police had shirked from investigating the land fraud case on the matter jurisdiction. It was after the aggrieved party moved the high court that the Karnal police were directed in January to investigate the case as land was in Karnal.
Not the sole case
It is not an isolated case of bogus transfer of land sale deeds on the basis of forged general power of attorney (GPA) registered at subregistrar office, Jalandhar, sources in the Karnal police said. There are said to be more than 30 forged GPAs that have been registered at the Jalandhar office.
In most of the cases, a common witness is Delhi-based Rajkumar whose bogus address was of Jalandhar. Stamp papers on which the GPAs were scribed were issued in the name of Punjab National Bank, Jalandhar. The photographs of a person who presented the document for registration were of individuals other than that of land owners, in whose name the GPAs were registered.
