Cops dig up Nabha EO’s house, find missing tractor-trailer parts

After protesting farmers complained of tractor-trailers and other items stolen from the Shambhu Morcha following the government crackdown in March, a police team on Wednesday raided official residence of Nabha Executive Officer (EO) Gurcharan Singh.

A joint team of the Crime Investigating Agency (CIA), Patiala, and the Nabha police recovered some spare parts after digging a portion of the EO’s residence.

Members of several protesting farm unions had alleged that AAP leader Pankaj Kumar Pappu, who is the husband of Nabha Municipal Council president Sujata Chawla, was behind the thefts.

In August, the police had booked Pappu for allegedly stealing and selling spare parts of tractor-trailers belonging to farmers.

The incident triggered trouble for Chawla, with majority of the councillors submitting a no-confidence motion against her.

“There are currently two FIRs registered against Pappu, one at the Sadar Nabha and other at Kotwali Nabha. A SIT led by the Patiala CIA is probing the theft cases,” said Nabha DSP Mandeep Kaur. “In one of the FIRs, a trailer was recovered and a case was resgitered against an unknown person, but later Pappu was named as an accused,” the DSP said.

“We are making a list of all recovered items and will tally the same with the items reported missing by farmers from Shambhu,” said CIA in-charge Pardeep Bajwa. EO Gurcharan said he had never used the official residence and it was being used by the civic body chief. Pappu termed the allegations as politically motivated.