Ferozepur DC Dhiman, 7 others indicted in Rajpura land scam

Patiala, April 5

More trouble for Ferozepur Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Dhiman as he along with seven other officials of the revenue department have been indicted following a probe for illegally selling 13,320 square yards of common panchayat land in Rajpura town of Patiala nearly 30 years ago.

Dhiman is currently embroiled in case linked to the Rs 137-crore guava orchard compensation scam.

Patiala DC Showkat Ahmad Parray said it was an old case. “The government had sought a probe report and we have submitted it,” said Parray. He added that the report had been sent to the Financial Commissioner (Revenue) for further action.

Besides Dhiman, those indicted in the report include Satinder Kumar, who was sub-registrar of Rajpura in 1991, Gurmeet Singh, who was sub-registrar, Rajpura in 2009, tehsildar Rajesh Kumar, kanungos’ Dharam Singh and Balwinder Singh and patwaris Surinder Mandal and Rupinder Singh. Of the eight, only two officials are still in service. Dhiman was not available for comments.

The case dates back to the 1990s. A committee of 31 villages formed to operationalise the land deal and the panchayat land was sold to seven persons on September 13, 1990. The probe report reveals that two of the seven buyers were already dead at the time of the registration of the land. The land was mutated in the name of the remaining five persons in 1991.

The probe report further revealed that the owners further sold the land in the 2007 and 2009 in connivance of revenue officials. RTI activist and whistle-blower Varun Malhotra, on whose complaint the probe was ordered, said the land was located near the national highway in Rajpura and had worth several crores.