Targeted by land mafia, victim writes to DGP to add names of tehsildar, patwari in FIR
Nikhil Bhardwaj
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, August 10
Targeted by land mafia in connivance with employees of the Land Records Scanning Project under the district administration, including its in-charge, for usurping the property worth Rs 1.5 crore, situated in Suni Park Barewal Awana, of a city-based businessman, Dharamjit Singh, the victim has now written a letter to the Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav, seeking the inclusion of names of a tehsildar and patwari in the already registered FIR in which 11 suspects were booked by the Sarabha Nagar police in December 2023.
The booked suspects include a property dealer, Taranjit Singh Chawla, Ramandeep Singh, Lakhwinder Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Taruna, Anshul Grover, Charanjit Singh Channa and Harvinder Singh. Three employees of a scanning project, Gagandeep Singh, record-keepers Kuldeep Singh and Jang Singh, also figure.
The copy of a letter written to the DGP in possession of The Tribune states, “Sir, I would like to bring to the notice of your good office that FIR-155/2023, Sarabha Nagar, is gradually turning out to be a series of planned crime conspired by 11 accused already named along with their accomplices. The patwari and tehsildar were involved in the conspiracy of tampering with the revenue records and executing a false sale deed. I hereby request that the FIR needs further probe into their roles.”
Dharamjit said even in the FIR, the police had mentioned that if the roles of both officials come into picture, action would be taken, but months have passed and neither have the police given a clean chit nor are they being booked in the case.
Interestingly, the names of the land record scanning project employees were initially not added to the FIR. It was only when the Ludhiana CP wrote a letter to the Deputy Commissioner for the names of accused employees in February 2024 that ADC (General) Major Amit Sareen took the matter seriously and sent the names of the employees on June 18, 2024, to the Ludhiana police.
SHO, Sarabha Nagar police station, Inspector Pawan Kumar, said most accused in the case were nabbed. If after the arrest of the remaining accused, the role of tehsildar or patwari comes to fore, then law will take its own course but so far no role of the two has come to light.
ADC: Land mafia, staff tampered with records
Ludhiana was the first district where the pilot project for the computerisation of land revenue records was launched in 2015. Under this, all land registries of three different sub-registrar offices have been put in the digital space which was available at the click of a mouse.
ADC (General) Major Amit Sareen told The Tribune here on Saturday that the land mafia in connivance with land records department employees had tampered with the land records of Dharamjit and daringly updated the forged land records in the software. Same fake land records were used by the mafia to claim ownership over the land of the complainant as in the government records, Dharamjit’s land was shown as registered in the name of land mafia with forged documents. Shockingly, the accused even changed the property records in physical form lying in the revenue department in the form of ‘bahis’ (hard copies).
“After we verified the facts and caught the scam, I directed the officials concerned to shut the software and start maintaining manual records of properties so that the land mafia cannot make attempt to usurp the property of others. Our preliminary probe suggested that the accused in connivance with record keepers had been uploading the forged property records in place of genuine property record. We had caught one case during probe in the complaint of Dharamjit but the accused had tampered with hundreds of property records. Now, talks to upgrade the software with latest checks and supervision are on. So far, only manual records of all property related documents will be maintained in Ludhiana district,” Sareen said.
The ADC asserted that he would also write to the Ludhiana police to ask them to deeply investigate the matter and book Revenue Department officials, if they are in connivance with the land mafia.
