Court issues show-cause notice to Mohali SP (Rural)

Mohali, January 11

A local court has issued a show-cause notice to Mohali Superintendent of Police (Rural) Manpreet Singh as to why a case may not be referred to the Director General of Police, Punjab, or the Chief Director, Vigilance Bureau, Punjab, for conducting an inquiry into his role in letting off Swara village nambardar Lakhvir Singh as accused and arraying the petitioner, Lakhwinder Singh, in a case reated to alleged forgery, impersonation and fabrication of a general power of attorney (GPA) of a property in the year 2022.

Hearing Lakhwinder’s bail application, the court sought an explanation as to how and on what basis the police official exonerated the nambardar as accused in the case and made the petitioner the accused, merely on the basis of Lakhvir’s oral statement.

The court observed, “This is a glaring case of the police high-handedness where the inquiry officer, SP (Rural) Manpreet Singh, prima facie appeared to have hoodwinked the process established by law.”

Furthermore, the perusal of the investigation record, which includes the inquiry report prepared by the Mohali SP, showed that the nambardar was not made an accused in the case despite the specific allegation against him that he had identified the impersonators as Pargat Singh and Baljinder Kaur, the actual owners of the property, which further showed his active role in the alleged impersonation, forgery and fabrication of the alleged registered GPA.

The allegations in the FIR was that the GPA (Vasika No. 940 dated February 18, 2022) was allegedly executed in favour of the co-accused, Baljit Singh, by getting some persons posing as Pargat Singh and Baljinder Kaur. The co-accused attempted to sell the property on the basis of forged and fabricated registered GPA through a property dealer, Rimpy, who revealed the design to the actual owners of the property, on whose complaint the FIR was registered.