Guava orchard scam: Vigilance nabs co-accused for receiving Rs 12 crore compensation

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has arrested Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Chandigarh, one of the co-accused in the ‘Guava orchard scam’ case that took place in Bakarpur village in 2016-17.

The accused had ‘fraudulently’ received approximately Rs 12 crore in compensation in his and his wife’s accounts, in collusion with government officials and other individuals.

The Vigilance Bureau investigation revealed that to claim illegal compensation for Guava orchards during the land acquisition process for the Aerotropolis project in Mohali, Sukhdev Singh allegedly purchased 3 Kanal 16 Marla land in Bakarpur village.

Subsequently, he allegedly conspired with the prime accused, Bhupinder Singh, a resident of Bakarpur, to falsely establish the presence of fruit bearing Guava orchards on the land.

He further ensured the collusion of the concerned Horticulture Development Officer to fraudulently assess and declare the trees as being over three-year old, making them eligible for compensation under the fruit-yielding tree category.

A VB spokesperson said that to facilitate the fraud, the original Khasra Girdawri revenue register (2016–2021) of Bakarpur village was destroyed and a forged Khasra Girdawri register was prepared in 2019.

The prime accused, Bhupinder Singh, in connivance with revenue Patwari Bachittar Singh, managed to manipulate the land records to falsely reflect the existence of mature Guava orchards.

Subsequently, Sukhdev Singh and his wife, Harbinder Kaur, fraudulently received over Rs 2.40 crore and Rs 9.57 crore respectively, as compensation from GMADA.

Unlike other co-accused beneficiaries, Sukhdev Singh neither voluntarily surrendered the fraudulently obtained compensation amount nor sought anticipatory bail from the court by depositing the required sum in treasury, the spokesperson added.

He said with the latest recovery of Rs 12 crore, the total amount of compensation returned till now would be Rs 100 crore. An amount of Rs 86 crore had already been deposited by other co-accused beneficiaries.

So far, the Vigilance Bureau had arrested seven government officials and 16 other individuals in the scam.