Cracking a whip against land mafia who took over the landworth crores of rupees in an illegal manner, Punjab Vigilance Bureau hasexposed unscrupulous revenue officials, property dealers along with big fishesinvolved in manipulating revenue records to make huge profits from landbelonging to S.A.S Nagar villages neighboring Chandigarh. In this regard, acriminal case has been registered at vigilance bureau police station SAS Nagaragainst four revenue officials and seven private persons. Out of these, fouraccused namely Iqbal Singh Patwari, Ravinder Singh, Paramjit Singh and Hansraj(all private persons) have been arrested and court has sent them on three dayspolice remand.
Disclosing this here on Sunday, Vigilance Bureau ChiefDirector-cum-Director General Police B.K. Uppal said some property dealers andland mafias have manipulated the revenue records during the process ofdivision/mutation of land in village Majrian, Sub Tehsil Majri, SAS Nagar inconnivance with the revenue officials and transferred ownership in Khewatnumbers vis-à-vis transferred land to known beneficiaries to make huge profitsby using illegal ways through the power of attorney.
It is pertinent to mention here that earlier to this theVigilance Bureau had also exposed a similar case pertaining to transfer ofvaluable land belonging to village Karoran in the same district in November2020.
Giving more details, he said after investigation of revenuerecords of village Majrian, a case u/s 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Actand 409, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 477-A, 201, 120-B of IPC has been registeredat Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Flying Squad-1, SAS Nagar. He revealed thatthe accused were identified as Naib Tehsildar Varinderpal Singh Dhoot, JointSub-Registrar Rupinder Singh Manku, Daulat Ram and Iqbal Singh (Both Patwari)besides seven private persons namely Shyam Lal and Hans Raj, both residents ofvillage Majrian (Patti Guda), SAS Nagar, Rabbi Singh of village Karoran, S.A.S.Nagar, Dharam Pal from Amloh in Fatehgarh Sahib, Sucha Ram of village Kaimbala,UT Chandigarh, Paramjit Singh of village Hardaspura, Patiala and Ravinder Singhvillage Sodha, Fatehgarh Sahib were found involved in this land scam.
During the investigation it has came to light that in theyear 1983-1984, about 29,000 kanals of land were shown as 'shamlat' (commonland) under Hasbat no. 343 out of the total area of village Majrian. In theyear 1991, this land was transferred in the name of locals through mutation No.2026 as per the orders of the consolidation officer. Out of this land, 7113kanal land has been found to be distributed through mutation No. 3159. During the probe, it has came to fore thatabout 558 acres of land has been registered on the names of 14 fake persons bytampering with the mutation number 3159.
The land was later allotted in the year 2010-11 to ShyamLal and Hansraj, both property dealers and land mafias, residents of villageMajrian, SAS Nagar, Sucha Ram of village Kiambwala (Chandigarh), Rabbi Singh ofvillage Karora, SAS Nagar and Dharampal resident of Amloh in connivance withthe officials of revenue department such as Patwari Iqbal Singh, Naib TehsildarRupinder Manku etc., thereby they further sold the above land to others personsthrough the power of attorneys in 2010-11.
He further informed that 10 fake transfers of around 578acres of land were found on 18.06.2014 and 19.06.2014 in just 2 days andoriginal document under which transfers of land had been executed weredestroyed from the records of the revenue department. The mutations of thesebogus transfers have been verified by Patwari Daulat Ram and the then NaibTehsildar Varinderpal Singh Dhoot. Through these illegal transfers, these landswere sold to the different persons through various land executions by Babu Ram,Ravinder Singh, Paramjit Singh, Shyam Lal, etc.
VB Chief Uppal said a fake division case for 43 personswere prepared and approved on 20.12.2017 with the collusion of Patwari DaulatRam, Naib Tehsildar Varinderpal Singh Dhoot, and property dealers Shyam Lalresident of Guda Majri. It is worth mentioning here that no prior notice wasgiven to any petitioner or respondent in this bogus division case, nor power ofattorney of any lawyer is attached to the file. In this connection, a fakeadvertisement was used which was published in the newspaper on 14.04.2014.
After approval of this case Patwari Daulat Ram on the verynext day of the division registered the mutation No. 4895 on 21.12.2017 whichwas approved by Naib Tehsildar Varinderpal Singh Dhoot on 27.12.2017. He saidthat further investigation in this case is underway and the no accused would bespared at any cost.