Two PSPCL officials, SDO among 4 booked on forgery charge - Hindustan Times
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Two PSPCL officials, SDO among 4 booked on forgery charge

Hindustan Times | By, Amritsar
Feb 25, 2012 04:04 PM IST

A case has been registered against Baba Sajjan Singh, president of Guru Hargobind Sahib Sewa Society, and three others, on charge of getting power connections on forged documents.

Amritsar rural police have registered a case against Baba Sajjan Singh, president of Guru Hargobind Sahib Sewa Society, and three other persons, including officials of Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) on charge of getting power connections on forged documents.

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The case under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC was registered on Thursday at the Mattewal police station on the directions of SSP SPS Pawar. The baba heads the society which manages Gurdwara Guru-ke-Ber in Boparai village on the Amritsar-Mehta road.

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The case was registered on the basis of an inquiry conducted by Majitha DSP Gursewak Singh way back in 2009. The inquiry report had been kept in wraps as the baba enjoys a lot of political clout. It was only after a lot of persuasion by the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) that the police finally decided to book the baba and the electricity officials.

Besides the Baba, the others named in the case are Shamsher Singh, a senior executive engineer of PSPCL, Jandiala SDO Mukhtiar Singh and Ashok Kumar Sood, a retired junior engineer of the PSPCL.

So far no arrests have been made in the case.

The inquiry was ordered by then SSP Gurmit Singh Chauhan on a complaint forwarded to his office by PHRO chairman Justice (retd) Ajit Singh Bains on October 5, 2009. Though the inquiry report was submitted in the same month to the SSP, but the case was not registered as the baba enjoyed the backing of a powerful ruling party MLA of Amritsar district.

The PHRO alleged in its complaint that the baba got electricity connections for his tubewells against the ex-servicemen quota on the basis of forged documents. The PHRO, in its inquiry, traced six ex-servicemen in whose names the baba had obtained the connections.

The ex-servicemen were not aware that the PSPCL had issued tubewell connections to the baba, who also owns agriculture land in the vicinity of the gurdwara and at other places.

The PHRO team, which also comprised Sarabjit Singh Verka, also found that the PSPCL officials, without verifying the details of the applications submitted by the baba, had given the go-ahead for issuing the power connections to the baba in the name of six ex-servicemen.

At the time of issuing the connections, Shamsher Singh was the SDO of the area, while Mukhtiar Singh and Sood were both junior engineers. Shamsher Singh and Mukhtiar Singh have both been promoted, while Sood has retired from service.

Sarabjit Singh told HT here on Friday that the case was registered after he recently met Pawar. He alleged that Pawar's predecessor Gurmit Singh Chauhan had kept the inquiry file under wraps on the instructions of a ruling party MLA.

"We have forwarded a complaint to border range DIG Ram Singh for initiating an inquiry against Chauhan and the MLA," Sarabjit said.

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