Guava orchard scam: Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrests absconding accused for fraudulently receiving Rs 12 crore compensation

The spokesperson said the probe revealed that Sukhdev Singh purchased onshore successful the Bakarpur colony with the intent to assertion amerciable compensation for guava orchards during the onshore acquisition process for the Aerotropolis task successful SAS Nagar.

He allegedly conspired with the main accused, Bhupinder Singh, a nonmigratory of Bakarpur, to falsely assertion the beingness of fruit-bearing guava orchards connected the land. He besides coordinated with the applicable horticulture improvement serviceman to fraudulently measure the trees arsenic being implicit 3 years old, which made them eligible for compensation nether the fruit-yielding histrion category, arsenic per the VB spokesperson.

The spokesperson elaborated connected the fraudulent scheme, revealing that Sukhdev Singh and Bhupinder Singh had an agreement. Sukhdev Singh would screen each expenses, including bribing officials, portion Bhupinder Singh would support two-thirds of the compensation magnitude erstwhile it was fraudulently obtained from the onshore acquisition collector (LAC) of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) done bribery and idiosyncratic influence.

He further revealed that to facilitate the fraud, the archetypal Khasra Girdawri gross registry (2016–2021) for the colony of Bakarpur was destroyed, and a forged Khasra Girdawri registry was created successful 2019. Bhupinder Singh, successful collusion with the gross Patwari Bachittar Singh, manipulated the onshore records to falsely amusement the beingness of mature guava orchards. As a result, Sukhdev Singh and his wife, Harbinder Kaur, fraudulently received compensation amounts of Rs 2,40,96,442 and Rs 9,57,86,642, respectively, from the LAC astatine GMADA.

The spokesperson further revealed that successful bid to transportation Bhupinder Singh’s stock of the illegally obtained compensation, Sukhdev Singh sold astir 6 Bighas of onshore successful the colony of Chappar Chiri, located successful the SAS Nagar district, astatine an undervalued complaint to Bhupinder Singh successful 2022 aft receiving the wrongful compensation. Similarly, 32 Kanals of onshore successful Kailon colony successful Mohali, owned by his woman Harbinder Kaur, was besides sold astatine an undervalued terms to Bhupinder Singh.

The spokesperson stated that contempt aggregate summons from the VB, Sukhdev Singh had been evading ineligible proceedings and was uncooperative during the investigation. Unlike the different co-accused beneficiaries, helium neither voluntarily surrendered the fraudulently obtained compensation magnitude nor applied for anticipatory bail with the tribunal by depositing the required sum successful the treasury.

The spokesperson stated that with the caller betterment of Rs 12 crore, the full magnitude of compensation returned has present reached Rs 100 crore. This includes Rs 86 crore that had already been deposited by different co-accused beneficiaries. To date, the VB has arrested 7 authorities officials and 16 backstage individuals successful transportation with this scam, and further investigations are ongoing.

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