JIT ex-chief in spot over illegal sale of properties

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, May 15

Former chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) Daljit Singh Ahluwalia could be in a major trouble as complaints regarding his involvement in the sale of two prime properties of the Trust have been reported to the higher authorities.

In one complaint, it has been mentioned that he got registered a plot measuring 16 marlas to his son’s name Gagandeep Singh without following any procedure.

The report of the drawing, technical and sale branches too was not sought prior to the registration. The original record of the registry is shown to have been lost by the office but no FIR even over missing files had been lodged by the Excecutive Officer of the Trust.

Interestingly, the file was moved in February last year after the imposition of the poll code for the 2022 Assembly elections and the registry was done on March 9, 2022, a day before the counting of the votes.

Ahluwalia’s father and son, who were then Congress leaders, had recently joined AAP ahead of the Jalandhar bypoll, knowing it well of the action coming against them from the AAP government.

The case has been reportedly highlighted by JIT Chairman Jagtar Singh Sanghera, who has complained about it to the Principal Secretary, Local Bodies Department, seeking a VB probe into the matter. Even the registry of the plot mentioned that the plot had been sold for just Rs 20 lakh with stamp papers worth Rs 1.2 lakh. There is no evidence available in the JIT records that Rs 20 lakh had been received by it.

In another case, Ahluwalia allotted another plot in the name of two persons for Rs 3,44,530, bypassing all rules. The market value of this plot is Rs 5 crore.

In both cases, the connivance of the ex-chairman with two office employees, senior assistant Ajay Malhotra and clerk Anuj Rai, has been alleged. Both employees had been reinstated after having remained placed under suspension.

The JIT is already under the scanner of the Vigilance Bureau over the allotment or sale of 86 properties through dealer Manjit Sethi. The economic offence wing of the VB had asked for the record related to these properties in the Ludhiana office. The last summon for it was issued on May 8, which was reportedly skipped by the JIT staff.

Chairman Jagtar Sanghera said the higher authorities would get the matter probed. On the VB summons, he said, “Our staff could not present the record as they were occupied with bypoll duties.”

Ahluwalia said, “The property is our ancestral one. Its registry was wrongly done. We later realised that it was actually the government land. My son has moved the court for cancellation of this registry. The matter raised by Sanghera are old issues which have been sorted out.”