Advocate held, tehsildar among 9 booked in fake land deal case

The Vigilance Bureau (VB), Ludhiana, has registered a case against nine individuals for fraudulently executing a sale deed of a 14 kanal piece of land in Ludhiana, which belongs to an NRI residing in the USA, using forged documents. In this connection, the VB today arrested advocate Gurcharan Singh of Ludhiana, who played a key role in facilitating the fake land registration worth crores.

Tehsildar (west) Jagsir Singh Saran executed the registration of land worth Rs 6 crore.

The VB team also conducted a raid on the bunglow of the tehsildar located at Ajit Villas, South City, today and recovered some incriminating documents pertaining to his properties along with some other important documents. The VB is likely to initiate a probe to inquire about the assets acquired by the revenue officer through fraudulent practices.

Disclosing this here, an official spokesperson of the VB said a surprise check was conducted by VB, Ludhiana range, at the sub-registrar office, tehsil (west), Ludhiana, on February 21, following intelligence inputs regarding a fraudulent land registration. Investigations revealed that a sale deed of this prime land near Lodhowal-Verka bypass had been executed on February 11, between Deep Singh (seller) and Deepak Goel of Panchkula (buyer) for Rs 30 lakh, whereas its market value was Rs 6 crore (approximately). However, it was found that Deep was residing in the USA, while an imposter had appeared at the tehsil office for the registration.

He further stated that the original sale deed was taken into possession during the surprise check and the verification confirmed the fraud. The sale deed was executed by Saran in the presence of person who was impersonating as Deep Singh. On behalf of Goel, an individual named Amit Gaur signed the registration documents. The witnesses, including property dealer Raghbir Singh, advocate Gurcharan Singh and nambardar Baghel Singh, had identified the imposter as the genuine landowner.

Further inquiry established that the land in question was located at Noorpur Bet village, under the jurisdiction of Ladhowal police station. Deep, aged 54, has been living in the USA with his family. During the fraudulent registration process, the imposter used a forged Aadhaar and PAN cards, misrepresenting his age as 39 years (born in 1985), whereas the actual Deep Singh was born in 1971.

The spokesperson added that the probe also found some serious lapses on the part of revenue officials, who failed to verify the antecedents of those involved. Based on the evidence and investigation report, an FIR dated February 27, was registered at the Economic Offences Wing and further investigation was entrusted to the VB.

The accused include Saran, buyer Deepak Goel, nambardar Baghel Singh, registry clerk Krishan Gopal, Gurcharan, Gaur, the impersonator, a computer operator and Raghbir.

Ludhiana VB SSP Ravinderpal Singh Sandhu said that on the basis of the investigation report the VB arrested Gurcharan, who had signed as witness and identified the fake Deep Singh. He would be produced in court tomorrow. Meanwhile, efforts were under way to arrest the remaining accused.

Following the development, the revenue officials in Punjab have announced to go on strike for an indefinite period.