79-yr-old man held for usurping land worth Rs 20 crore of NRI in Ludhiana

The NRI police here have arrested a 79-year-old man for committing a property fraud worth crores of rupees. He usurped land worth over Rs 20 crore belonging to a Canada-based NRI.

The suspect was identified as Manjit Singh Mand, a resident of Sarabha Nagar Extension, Chabra Colony.

Karamjit Singh Grewal, a native of Dhandra village, now staying in Canada, said a case of fraud was registered against Manjit and others on February 2, 2024, at the NRI police station. The suspects were roaming freely but the police were not arresting them. He and his relatives staying in Ludhiana had requested the police to nab the suspects but to no avail. Recently, when they filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the functioning of the police, the court had issued directions, following which the police arrested the elderly key suspect. He was kept at an old age home by the family from where the police detained him.

Grewal said it was irony that the Punjab Police took a long time in registering a case against the suspects as a complaint was filed in April 2023 and they took months to investigate the case and registered an FIR against Manjit, Gagangian Deep Singh of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Jasbir Singh of Threeke in February 2024. The matter was probed by the NRI wing DSP and further examined and verified by the AIG and DIG, NRI wing, and thereafter the DGP took the legal opinion of the DA (legal) and the FIR was lodged.

He wrote many letters to CM Bhagwant Singh Mann but nothing happened.

“After registering a case, the police were not ready to arrest the suspects despite the fact that we shared information about their whereabouts many a times with the police. Had we not moved the High Court, the key suspect might not had been arrested by now,” asserted the complainant.

He revealed that Manjit had illegally transferred 4,300 sq-yard land by committing a fraud with his father and later when the fraud came to the fore, the suspect refused to return the land. Before his father died in 2018, he apprised him about the fraud and told to take the ancestral land back from the suspect.

“My father had appointed Manjit as the caretaker of our land worth crores in Ludhiana but he misused the authority and fraudulently took signature of my father on some property documents and committed the fraud,” the complainant alleged.

Grewal said besides the FIR, Manjit was also facing another case related to a property fraud registered at the NRI police station last year.

Karamjit said Manjit was the father of Gursimran Singh Mand, who was the president of the International Anti-Khalistani Terrorist Front.

SHO, NRI police station, inspector Amandeep Singh, when asked about the arrest, refused to share details and hung up the phone. Afterwards, he did not respond to calls.