Police freeze Gulshan Jain family’s properties worth Rs 125 cr

PK Jaiswar
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, March 9

Taking a stern action against proclaimed offenders, the Amritsar rural police on Tuesday freezed the properties worth Rs125 crore belonging to Gulshan Jain and his family, who owned Virumal Mulakhraj Rice Mill at Jandiala Guru.

The case

The family has been absconding for the past two years after allegedly bungling government paddy and taking bank limits worth Rs200 crore. They allegedly escaped out of the country in 2018. A case of fraud and forgery and under Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against Gulshan Jain and his other family members including Nitin Jain (son), his wife Neetu Jain, Sudhir Jain and his wife Sofia Jain.

The family has been absconding for the past two years after allegedly bungling government paddy and taking bank limits worth Rs200 crore. They had allegedly escaped out of the country after abruptly shutting down its operations in 2018. A case for fraud and forgery and under Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against Gulshan Jain and his other family members including Nitin Jain (son), his wife Neetu Jain, Sudhir Jain and his wife Sofia Jain.

According to a survey conducted by the Department of Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, around 400 wagons of government paddy worth Rs32 crore are missing from the mill godowns. During the search, it was found that the accused also duped Punjab National Bank of around Rs200 crore. The suspects showed the government paddy as their own before taking the cash credit limit from the bank. The probe in the case was later shifted to Punjab Vigilance Bureau.

The Vigilance Bureau had arrested the then District Food and Civil Supplies Controller of Amritsar, AP Singh, who had allegedly duped the state exchequer of Rs40 crore in connivance with other officials and rice mill owners. Besides District Food and Civil Supplies Officer Raminder Singh Bath and Assistant Food and Civil Supplies Officer Vipan Sharma and Food Inspector Gurjinder Singh, were also arrested by the bureau.

According to the police, the local court of Judicial Magistrate declared them proclaimed offenders and ordered freezing of their properties on March 5. Following this, after evaluation, the local police took action.

Cops claimed that they freezed properties worth Rs125 crore. The police freezed a rice sheller at Dhirekot village, a bungalow, commercial lands near Raghunath College.