3 hoteliers walk free in property dispute case

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 11

A local court acquitted three local hotel owners in a case of dishonestly receiving stolen property.

Joga Singh (53), owner/proprietor of Hotel Pride, his son Ravinder Singh (28) and Gurinder Singh (42) were acquitted of charges under Section 411 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The dispute pertained to a land existing near Punjab Engineering College, which was vacated under the Public Premises Act from unauthorised occupants who allegedly encroached upon the land in question. The physical possession of the vacant government land was handed over to the Engineering Department after vacating the land from the unauthorised occupants as per the complaint to the police.

After this, the Engineering Department’s fence that acted as a boundary wall with concrete pillars was allegedly removed by the accused.

The police received a call in May 2015 mentioning that the main beneficiary in this case was a hotel owner who had been using the said space, which was meant for private use, for parking.

A case was registered against the three persons - Joga Singh, Ravinder Singh and Gurinder Singh - at the Sector 11 police station.

Karam Chand, Executive Engineer of the Engineering Department, was among the chief witnesses, besides a patwari of the Estate Office.

Defence counsel of the accused, Harish Bhardwaj, had argued that the accused were falsely implicated and the prosecution failed to prove the case.

The issue

The dispute pertained to a land existing near Punjab Engineering College, which was vacated under the Public Premises Act from unauthorised occupants who allegedly encroached upon the land in question. The physical possession of the vacant government land was handed over to the Engineering Department after vacating the land from the unauthorised occupants as per the complaint to the police.