Jheourheri land scam: Tehsildar sent to two-day police remand

Mohali, May 28

A local court on Monday sent Bassi Pathana Tehsildar Kuldip Singh Dhillon, who was arrested by the Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Sunday for embezzlement of funds pertaining to the acquisition of Jheourheri village shamlat land for the international airport, to two-day police remand.

Dhillon allegedly helped two main accused — sarpanch Gurpal Singh and Mohammad Suhel Chauhan — in getting land registered fraudulently.

The VB claimed that Dhillon received a bribe of Rs 17 lakh from the accused and was instrumental in the execution of Rs 6.35-crore scam. 

The police told the court that they were to check Dhillon’s involvement in other cases and whether more accused were involved in the scam along with him. The police are also yet to recover the embezzled money.

So far, the police have arrested around 12 persons in the case. On February 20, the bureau had registered a case under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act against former Mansa ADC Gurvinder Singh Sarao, BDPO Malvinder Singh, Panchayat Officer Ravinder Singh, Gurpal Singh, Surinder Singh, Mohammad Suhel, Darshan Singh, Swarn Singh, Darshan Singh and others. The Vigilance had also arrested Jeetpal Mittal, an accused in the case.

Significantly, 36 acres of common land was acquired for the construction of the airport, for which a relief of Rs 1.5 crore per acre was awarded. The government had released Rs 54.17 crore to the panchayat, but the funds were placed at the disposal of the Director, Rural Development and Panchayats. — TNS