Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrests eight in Rs 64 cr Jalandhar-Chintpurni highway land scam case

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh November 18

The Vigilance Bureau (VB) today arrested eight persons involved in a multi-crore Jalandhar-Chintpurni highway land scam.

The VB claimed that record of land acquisition was found missing from the office of Hoshiarpur SDM and tehsildar. It said Anand Sagar Sharma, former SDM, Hoshiarpur, had fraudulently changed draft 3-A schedule prepared by Louis Berger and illegally released compensation to the tune of Rs 64 crore to his contacts who purchased the land along the new road alignment. He was among the 13 persons named in the FIR.

The VB had added Section 201 of the IPC against the accused over missing record and nominated 42 more persons in the latest probe.

Those arrested include Pradeep Gupta of Church Road, Civil Lines, Hoshiarpur, who in connivance with Harpinder Singh, purchased 9 kanal 4 marla land at Khawaspur village in the name of their sons — Pratik Gupta and Amritpreet Singh — and received a compensation of Rs 6.63 crore in the bank account of Pratik.

Sunny Kumar Nambardar of Khawaspur village was arrested for falsely testifing as nambardar. Accused Dalwinder Kumar of Khawaspur stood as a buyer and registered land in the name of Harpinder Singh’s associates.

Hardeep Kaur, wife of Rupinder Singh Gill, resident of Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar, Jalandhar, conspired with her husband and her brother-in-law Harpinder Singh to get 4 kanal and 17 marla land registered in her name and got a compensation of Rs 2.42 crore.

Accused Tajinder Singh of Kunj Extension, Jalandhar, got 18 marla and 1 sarsai registered in his name and received Rs 56 lakh.

Another accused Mohit Gupta of Millerganj Overlock Road, Ludhiana, transferred Rs 27 lakh out of the compensation amount to his account.

Ramji, a deed writer at Hoshiarpur tehsil complex, in connivance with tehsildar, naib tehsildar, registry clerk and the accused deceived the real owners through 31 registries.

Jaswinder Singh Patwari (retired) deceived the actual land owners and entered transfer of the land purchased after the notification in connivance with the accused.

The VB said 13 accused were booked on February 10, 2017 for cheating and corruption. Then SDM Anand Sagar Sharma had changed khasra numbers of five villages for the notification of land acquisition. A total compensation of Rs 286 crore was received from the Centre. Of this, the SDM illegally disbursed Rs 64 crore.

Ex-SDM gave compensation amount to contacts

The VB said Anand Sagar Sharma, former SDM, Hoshiarpur, had fraudulently changed draft 3-A schedule prepared by Louis Berger and illegally released compensation to the tune of Rs 64 crore to his contacts who purchased the land along the new road alignment. He was among the 13 persons named in the FIR.

#Hoshiarpur