Punjab VB arrests Akali leader Wahid for sugar mill land fraud

Chandigarh, September 30

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Saturday arrested senior Akali Dal leader Jarnail Singh Wahid, his wife Rupinder Kaur and son Sandeep Singh over alleged irregularities at a sugar mill in Phagwara.

A VB spokesperson said Wahid, the managing director of Wahid-Sandhar Sugar Mills Limited, also known as Golden Sandhar Mills, allegedly misappropriated government land (allotted to the mill), thus causing financial losses to the government.

The spokesperson said an inquiry had found that the first agreement of the mill was signed in February 1933 when the erstwhile Kapurthala rulers allotted 251 kanals and 18 marlas of land to Jagatjit Sugar Mills Company Limited. The agreement had laid down the condition that the land could not be sold or mortgaged further. In case the mill shut down, the land was to be reverted to the state. However, the company may, with the government’s approval, transfer its rights to any another firm, corporation or a person connected with the sugar industry, the agreement mentioned.

Wahid Sandhar Mills secured the rights to run Jagatjit Mill in October 2000. “A 99-year lease was agreed upon, but it lacked the government’s approval. The lease deed was not entered in revenue record with the motive to cheat banks and the government. On the basis of the lease document, the mill land worth Rs 93.94 crore was pledged as a guarantee against a loan. It was an illegal financial gain,” said the spokesperson.

The VB official alleged that in 2013-14, with the connivance of the company’s directors, another firm, M/s WS Fitness Private Limited, was registered. “The directors of these companies illegally sold off the mill land measuring 6 kanals and 4 marlas on April 11, 2017, thus causing losses to the government by misappropriating its land,” said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson alleged the land registration was done illegally by Revenue Department officials in violation of Section 135 of the Punjab Registration Manual, 1929, and in connivance with the company’s directors. Akali Dal spokesperson Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema, meanwhile, has termed the arrest as “another incident of political vendetta”.