Chandigarh: Gandhi Bhawan ex-incharge among 15 booked for fraud

Chandigarh, January 13

The UT police have booked a former incharge of Gandhi Bhawan and others on charges of illegal possession of the Sector 16 premises.

The action comes on a complaint by Anand Kumar Sharan, general secretary, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi (registered as an independent Trust), seeking action against 15 persons for fraud.

Charges levelled by Trust

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• Gandhi Bhawan ex-incharge Dev Raj Tyagi collected funds for unauthorised Trust with a similar name for event held on Gandhi Jayanti last year
• He allegedly prepared forged papers to open a bank account; with help of others used forged papers to get Trust registered
• “Sole objective of these persons is to play a fraud to usurp property owned by Gandhi Smarak Nidhi,” complainant has claimed

The complainant alleged Dev Raj Tyagi, former incharge of Gandhi Bhawan, had organised a function on Gandhi Jayanti in 2022 and collected funds for an unauthorised Trust with a similar name to play a fraud on the sponsors. He allegedly prepared forged documents and opened a bank account.

A Trust deed was registered with the Sub-Registrar’s office in Chandigarh on September 9, 2022, under ‘Gandhi Samarak Nidhi’ (similar to ‘Smarak’, but with an additional ‘a’), with Gandhi Bhawan, Sector 16, as its address, having five trustees. The Trust was registered with forged documents with the help of Tyagi and others, it is alleged. “The sole objective of these persons is to play a fraud to usurp the property owned by the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi,” the complainant stated.

Further, the complainant alleged several other organisations had been registered at the Gandhi Bhawan address. In one such organisation, Prakritik Chikitsa Samiti, a naturopathy doctor on contractual basis had referred to himself as chairman of the organisation. One suspect had got several firms and societies registered at the same address and was running these from the address, it has been alleged.

In the FIR, the complainant stated during the Gandhi Jayanti event in 2022, attended by the Punjab Governor and UT Administrator, UT Mayor and Additional Solicitor General of India, “all these dignitaries were not given a true picture about the organisation that actually owns the property and the identification of Dev Raj Tyagi as an employee… The sponsorship was collected by Tyagi in a different account, while the actual expenses were borne by us as we were kept in the dark about the illegal activities of Tyagi.” The contractual services of Tyagi were terminated on October 16, 2022.

A case under Sections 419, 420, 458, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC was registered at the Sector-17 police station yesterday.