Punjab’s Vigilance Bureau has apprehended six accused in connection with an illegal compensation scam involving a guava orchard in Bakarpur village on Tuesday. The arrests are part of the Bureau’s ongoing campaign against corruption in the state.
The accused- three men and three women- obtained compensation worth crores of rupees from the state government through illegal after acquiring land in the village. A total of 15 individuals connected to the case have been arrested.
A bureau spokesperson said the six accused include Sunita Gupta and her son Gaurav Kansal, residents of Chandigarh as well as Gurminder and Harminder Singh, their mother Sukhraj Kaur, and Amrik Kaur, all residents of Bakarpur village.
According to the official, PD Gupta, along with his wife Sunita, and their sons Gaurav and Abhishek Kansal, purchased an acre of land in the village in 2018. Each family member had received an equal one-fourth share. During the acquisition process, they claimed compensation of approximately Rs. 1 crore by falsely asserting that a guava orchard had been planted on the said land since 2016. While all four members were named in the case, Gaurav Kansal and his mother Sunita Gupta were arrested on Tuesday.
Similarly, Gurminder and Harminder Singh, along with their mother Sukhraj Kaur, also fraudulently claimed compensation of Rs. 1.84 crores each in collusion with officials from the Revenue and Horticulture Departments. Amrik Kaur and her son Varinder Singh, also residents of the village also received wrongful compensation of Rs. 1.25 lakhs each. Kaur was among the six accused arrested.
The Vigilance Bureau obtained “voluminous” documentary records from the Departments of Revenue, Land Acquisition Collector, Greater Mohali Area Development Authority, Sub-Registrar Mohali, Horticulture, etc., and closely analysed the roles and actions of the alleged beneficiaries. Numerous beneficiaries were nominated as accused, and their premises were raided on Tuesday to affect their arrests, the spokesperson added.
Several Vigilance Bureau teams have conducted raids at different locations across the state to apprehend other accused individuals, while a special operation is currently ongoing.