Cracking a whip against land mafia who took over the land worth crores of rupees in an illegal manner, Punjab Vigilance Bureau has exposed unscrupulous revenue officials, property dealers along with big fishes involved in manipulating revenue records to make huge profits from land belonging to S.A.S Nagar villages neighboring Chandigarh. In this regard, a criminal case has been registered at vigilance bureau police station SAS Nagar against four revenue officials and seven private persons. Out of these, four accused namely Iqbal Singh Patwari, Ravinder Singh, Paramjit Singh and Hansraj (all private persons) have been arrested and court has sent them on three days police remand.
Disclosing this here on Sunday, Vigilance Bureau Chief Director-cum-Director General Police B.K. Uppal said some property dealers and land mafias have manipulated the revenue records during the process of division/mutation of land in village Majrian, Sub Tehsil Majri, SAS Nagar in connivance with the revenue officials and transferred ownership in Khewat numbers vis-à-vis transferred land to known beneficiaries to make huge profits by using illegal ways through the power of attorney.
It is pertinent to mention here that earlier to this the Vigilance Bureau had also exposed a similar case pertaining to transfer of valuable land belonging to village Karoran in the same district in November 2020.
Giving more details, he said after investigation of revenue records of village Majrian, a case u/s 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 409, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 477-A, 201, 120-B of IPC has been registered at Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Flying Squad-1, SAS Nagar. He revealed that the accused were identified as Naib Tehsildar Varinderpal Singh Dhoot, Joint Sub-Registrar Rupinder Singh Manku, Daulat Ram and Iqbal Singh (Both Patwari) besides seven private persons namely Shyam Lal and Hans Raj, both residents of village 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 Singh village Sodha, Fatehgarh Sahib were found involved in this land scam.
During the investigation it has came to light that in the year 1983-1984, about 29,000 kanals of land were shown as 'shamlat' (common land) under Hasbat no. 343 out of the total area of village Majrian. In the year 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, 7113 kanal land has been found to be distributed through mutation No. 3159. During the probe, it has came to fore that about 558 acres of land has been registered on the names of 14 fake persons by tampering with the mutation number 3159.
The land was later allotted in the year 2010-11 to Shyam Lal and Hansraj, both property dealers and land mafias, residents of village Majrian, SAS Nagar, Sucha Ram of village Kiambwala (Chandigarh), Rabbi Singh of village Karora, SAS Nagar and Dharampal resident of Amloh in connivance with the officials of revenue department such as Patwari Iqbal Singh, Naib Tehsildar Rupinder Manku etc., thereby they further sold the above land to others persons through the power of attorneys in 2010-11.
He further informed that 10 fake transfers of around 578 acres of land were found on 18.06.2014 and 19.06.2014 in just 2 days and original document under which transfers of land had been executed were destroyed from the records of the revenue department. The mutations of these bogus transfers have been verified by Patwari Daulat Ram and the then Naib Tehsildar Varinderpal Singh Dhoot. Through these illegal transfers, these lands were 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 persons were prepared and approved on 20.12.2017 with the collusion of Patwari Daulat Ram, Naib Tehsildar Varinderpal Singh Dhoot, and property dealers Shyam Lal resident of Guda Majri. It is worth mentioning here that no prior notice was given to any petitioner or respondent in this bogus division case, nor power of attorney of any lawyer is attached to the file. In this connection, a fake advertisement was used which was published in the newspaper on 14.04.2014.
After approval of this case Patwari Daulat Ram on the very next day of the division registered the mutation No. 4895 on 21.12.2017 which was approved by Naib Tehsildar Varinderpal Singh Dhoot on 27.12.2017. He said that further investigation in this case is underway and the no accused would be spared at any cost.