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 SAS Nagar (Mohali) villages, neighboring Chandigarh.
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 the Court has sent them on three days police remand.
“Some property dealers and land mafias have manipulated the revenue records during the process of division or 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,” said the Bureau chief director-cum-Director General Police BK Uppal.
Earlier, the Vigilance Bureau had also exposed a similar case pertaining to transfer of valuable land belonging to Karoran village in the same district in November 2020.
Giving more details, he said that after investigation of revenue records of Majrian village, a case under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 409, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 477-A, 201, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered at Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Flying Squad-1, SAS Nagar.
Uppal 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, SAS 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 come to light that in 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 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 come 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, he added.
