Amritsar: MC councillor, SAD leader booked for duping NRI woman

Civil Lines police have booked a sitting Congress councillor Sameer Dutta and SAD leader Amarbir Singh Sandhu for allegedly duping a Canada-based NRI woman and fraudulently selling her property by forging documents after the demise of her husband.

Amarbir Sandhu was brother-in-law of the complainant, identified as Manpreet Kaur Sandhu, who originally hails from Amritsar. A case was registered following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court after the police failed to provide justice to the victim and her family.

Manpreet Kaur Sandhu alleged that she had been making rounds of the local police for the past three years, but because of the influence of two political leaders, the police officials did not take any action in this regard. They had to approach the High Court for justice.

Civil Lines police have registered a case under section 420 and 120-B of IPC and Section 82 of Registration Act 1908 last night. No arrest has been made till now as the accused had gone underground following the registration of an FIR last night, said the police.

The complainant said that Amarbir Singh Sandhu was the elder brother of her husband Pritpal Singh Sandhu. Both were in property business and had procured huge chunks of land and sold them after creating new colonies. She said that her husband suffered from a brain tumour, they had to shift to Canada for his treatment. She alleged that before they went to Canada, Amarbir Sandhu got signatures of her husband and other members of the family on various documents so that they could continue their business without any hassles.

She alleged that after her husband died because of brain cancer, they returned and sought the details of their properties. He started delaying the same. Later, she came to know that he had sold their share of properties by forging the documents.

Kanwar Mubarak Singh, counsel for the complainant, said that in the present case, Manpreet’s husband along with his brother Amarbir and Sameer Datta had purchased land from one Faquir Chand and had taken power of attorney from him. Unfortunately, Faquir Chand died in 2014 and Pritpal also died in 2019. The two accused conspired with each other to commit fraud with Manpreet and sold properties in the name of Faquir Chand six years after his death through one Tarsem Singh mentioned in sale deeds that Faquir Chand was alive, he said.