VB books Hoshiarpur Improvement Trust official over corruption

The Vigilance Bureau (VB) has registered a corruption case against Sanjeev Kalia, Senior Assistant, Hoshiarpur Improvement Trust, for committing irregularities and purchasing a plot in the Jalandhar Improvement Trust colony in his wife’s name by misusing his position.

An official spokesperson of the VB said during investigation, it was found that without receiving the non-construction fee of Rs 14,35,350 from Devinderpal Kaur for plot number 828 in a Trust colony, Kalia had misused his position. Despite the fact that he was not even the dealing hand for the case, he wrote a letter dated April 21, 2010, to the patwari to report about the khasra numbers of the plot. As the patwari sent this report to the Superintendent (Sales), Kalia again bypassed the Superintendent and got the plot transferred in the name of Devinderpal Kaur from the then Chairman without receiving the non-construction fee of Rs 14,35,350.

Apart from this, the Trust in a letter dated October 13, 2016, issued a No-Due Certificate (NDC) in the name of plot owner Davinderpal Kaur, while she had died on January 12, 2015, due to which, the NDC could not be issued.

He further revealed that during the probe, as per the statement given by Jatinder Singh, Executive Officer (EO), the NDC did not have his signature, but the Trust had clarified through its official letter dated October 11, 2024, that this NDC was signed by Jatinder Singh as the signature was similar to the signatures of the officer put on the other files.

In a second case of irregularity against him, it was also found that a 9 marla 147 sq ft land owned by one Sohan Dei was acquired by the Improvement Trust under the ‘110 Scheme’ Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar in 1976 but no plot was allotted to Sohan Dei in return as per the policy of Trust. Kalia, being posted at the Trust, was aware that plot number 276 adjacent to his residential house in the trust’s 94.5 acre scheme Guru Gobind Singh Avenue is vacant, which could be allotted in the name of someone else under the Locally Displaced Persons (LDP) quota scheme.

Therefore, he approached Sohan Dei through his acquaintances and gave her only Rs 6.5 lakh and appointed Deepak, a resident of Adampur, as the power of attorney for Sohan Dei and got it registered in his name. After this, he got it allotted to the wife of Kalia on the basis of Deepak’s power of attorney on October 28, 2011. The reserve price of the plot was Rs 31,883 only and he deposited it in the bank account of the Trust. After getting the registration of this plot in the name of Sohan Dei on December 22, 2011, the NDC of plot number 276 was obtained through a letter dated March 5, 2012.

Kalia, by showing that he had paid Rs 7 lakh to Deepak on February 3, 2012, had appeared in person to get the plot registered in the name of his wife Upma Kalia at Rs 21,74,000 as per the collector rate.

He added that it was also found that Kalia neither took approval from his department for purchasing the plot, nor informed the department later. A case has been registered against him. The accused Sanjeev Kalia is yet to be arrested.