Ludhiana: FIR filed against 13 in multi-crore Malakpur panchayat funds ‘scam’

The Ludhiana police have registered a case against 13 persons, including the then block development and panchayat officers, panchayat secretaries, a sarpanch, an assistant engineer and a gram sewak for alleged multi-crore financial irregularities in the utilisation of panchayat funds in Malakpur village of the district.

The case was registered at the PAU police station on Tuesday under Sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the directions of the Commissioner of Police, Ludhiana, after a detailed inquiry ordered by the Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana.

The complaint was filed by Nazar Singh, a resident of Malakpur, recently.

In his complaint to the Deputy Commissioner, the complainant alleged that large-scale irregularities took place in the tenure of two panchayats of the village between 2013 and 2024 wherein funds worth several crores were misused by panchayat officials in connivance with each other.

According to the FIR, the government had deposited approximately Rs 13.74 crore as compensation in 2017-18 for a land acquired for a bypass project. Other government grants and Rural Development Funds were also credited to panchayat accounts during the period. Most amount was shown as spent on village streets and drains without following prescribed procedures.

The complainant further stated in the FIR that no audit of the gram sabha accounts had been conducted since 2017. Even several pages of cash books and proceeding registers were found missing and local officials of the department were aware of the irregularities but took no action despite written and verbal complaints from villagers. It showed connivance of the panchayat officials in misusing funds.

An inquiry committee, headed by the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Rural Development), was constituted on the orders of the Deputy Commissioner. The inquiry remained pending for a long time and was also the subject of a civil writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which directed that the probe be completed within specified time frames.

Sources said the final inquiry report found that proper procedures were not followed while making payments during different tenures of officials between 2017 and 2023. The report specifically pointed out instances where cheques were issued after passing resolutions at the panchayat level without obtaining required technical sanctions.

The suspects named in the FIR include Rupinderjit Kaur, block development and panchayat officer, Jaswinder Singh, assistant engineer, Teja Singh, gram sewak, Baldev Singh, panchayat secretary, Sukhminder Singh, panchayat secretary, Malkit Kaur, sarpanch, Gurmel Singh, BDPO, Jagroop Singh, panchayat secretary, Kiranpal Singh, panchayat secretary, Kamal Bharti, VDO-cum-panchayat secretary and BDPOs Dhanwant Singh, Malkit Singh Bhatti and Rajinder Kaur. These officials served on their respective positions between 2013 to 2024 in the Panchayat Department and some of them had also retired now.

A police official said the inquiry report had recommended detailed investigation by the Police Department as some of the officials named did not appear before the committee for cross-examination and it had further raised the suspicion about the role of the officials in the entire scam.

“The police are now examining relevant records, bank statements, financial documents and other evidence related to the alleged misuse of public funds,” said a police official.