Chandigarh May 3 (IANS) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has exposed a scam by arresting seven people, including a revenue official, on charges of receiving compensations during acquisition of land on forged documents in Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) from 2016 to 2020.
A spokesperson for the Vigilance Bureau said the main accused has been identified as Bhupinder Singh, Mukesh Jindal, Shaman Jindal, Mukesh Jindal, Praveen Lata, Vishal Bhandari, Sukhdev Singh, Binder Singh and Bachitar Singh.
He said officials of the Horticultural Department, namely Jaspreet Singh, Vaishali, Dinesh Kumar, Rashmi Arora, Anil Arora and Vishal Bhandari are yet to be arrested.
The spokesperson said during the investigation of a complaint, the Vigilance Bureau found that in 2016 the GMADA published notices in SAS Nagar for acquisition of land pertaining to various villages and issued notifications under Section 4 in 2017 and under Section 19 in 2020.
Property dealer Bhupinder Singh, in connivance with officials and employees of GMADA, the Revenue and Horticulture Departments, along with his colleagues Anil Jindal, Mukesh Jindal and Vikas Bhandari started planting guava orchards on the agricultural land by getting land on general power of attorneys.
The spokesperson said during the probe it was found that the main accused, Bhupinder Singh, has taken compensation of around Rs 24 crore for guava plantations for himself and his family members.
Similarly, Mukesh Jindal has defrauded the government by taking compensation of about Rs 20 crore.
Many other persons have also taken compensation from the government illegally by showing guava orchards in their land.
The Vigilance Bureau said the other accused would be arrested soon.
A SAD delegation led by its president Sukhbir Singh Badal met Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit and handed over a memorandum stating that the Chief Minister and the Excise Minister have violated the provisions of the Official Secrets Act by making official files of the state available to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and MP Raghav Chadha, besides private persons.
The location of another plotter, Anmol Bishnoi, has also been traced to Kenya. The Bishnois had fled India before the daylight killing of Moosewala on May 29 in the Moosa village in Mansa district. It is believed that Sachin, a nephew of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, and Brar hatched the conspiracy to kill the famed Punjabi singer.
Sisodia's bank locker at a Ghaziabad bank was searched by the CBI on Tuesday morning. Manish Sisodia and his wife Seema Sisodia reached the bank along with the probe agency officials to examine the bank locker in connection with the alleged irregularities in the excise policy.
According to Goa Police, methamphetamine was given to Phogat and the drug has been seized from a washroom of the Curlies restaurant in Anjuna. So far, five persons have been arrested in this case, including her personnel assistant Sudhir Sangwan and his friend Sukhwinder Singh.
"We will soon stop buying arms and ammunition from other countries, as everything will be manufactured in India" said the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
A woman, who used to get false gang-rape FIRs lodged against people to extort money and had been running a sextortion gang, was arrested in Delhi's Dwarka area, police said on Monday. So far four such cases against various persons in Delhi and Haryana have surfaced.
