The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) arrested Jaspreet Singh Sidhu, a Horticultural Development Officer (HDO) who had served in Kharar and Dera Bassi, SAS Nagar district. He is accused in the multi-crore Guava orchids compensation scam in SAS Nagar.
According to an official spokesperson of the state VB, JS Sidhu initially obtained interim bail from the High Court on September 1, 2023. However, the VB vehemently opposed his anticipatory bail petition, filing three affidavits/counter-affidavits during lengthy and detailed arguments to seek his custodial interrogation. The VB highlighted call detail records showing Sidhu›s proximity to other accused beneficiaries, statements of various witnesses, tampered and forged documentary records, and discrepancies between the report submitted to GMADA and the office copy of the same report retained in the state Horticulture Department.
The spokesperson disclosed that the High Court dismissed Sidhu›s anticipatory bail petition on January 24, 2023. Subsequently, the accused HDO remained on the run, and the VB successfully traced and arrested him on Tuesday in SAS Nagar.
The accused had served as HDO in Kharar for the past 15 years from 2004 to 2019. He was involved in evaluating the market value of fruit-bearing trees on lands acquired by GMADA for various projects such as Aerocity, IT City, Sector 88-89, etc.
Providing more details on the case, the spokesperson mentioned that the VB registered FIR no. 16 in 2023 after uncovering a significant scam involving the embezzlement of about Rs 137 crores under the guise of compensation for Guava orchards on land acquired for the development of Aerotropolis city. The acquired land belonged to villages including Bakarpur, situated alongside Airport Road in SAS Nagar.
The accused manipulated the assessment of Guava trees’ value by falsely claiming the age of plants to be four years or more. They tampered with records, including the Revenue/Khasra Girdawari Register for the year 2016-17, to show that Guava trees were planted since 2016.
Under the mentioned Act, the determination of the age and category of fruit-bearing plants is crucial for calculating their market value, typically done by horticulture officials. The accused HDO, posted in Dera Bassi, was assigned the assessment work for the villages under acquisition without clear justification.
Despite having to evaluate fruit trees on about 180 acres of land, Sidhu visited the land only once for inspection/evaluation. He prepared an assessment report for a total of 207 khasra numbers mentioned in the LAC, GMADA survey list. The VB found that he obtained photocopies of khasra Girdawari records with visible overwriting/additions/alterations to mention Guava orchards, which he ignored while preparing the tailor-made assessment report, evaluating the age of said plants as 4-5 years.
The spokesperson revealed that the VB has so far arrested 21 accused persons, including beneficiaries and public servants such as JS Johal, LAC, Vaishali, HDO, Bachitar Singh, Patwari, etc. Some beneficiaries were granted anticipatory bails upon offering to deposit 100 percent of the compensation amount. The VB has approached the Supreme Court of India challenging the High Court’s bail orders, and the Supreme Court has issued notices to the accused respondents. The High Court ordered various accused beneficiaries to deposit a total amount of Rs 72.36 crores, out of which Rs 43.72 crores have been deposited as of the current date.