CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has lodged a case against seven persons for obtaining an agricultural credit limit of Rs. 40 lakh out of which three accused have been arrested and further investigation of this case is under progress.
Giving this information, the spokesperson of VB said this case has been registered against Navdeep Singh, resident of village Kohar Singh Wala, Tehsil Guruharshai, District Ferozepur, Vinod Kumar and Amarjit Singh, both revenue Patwari, Halka Bahadur Ke, Tehsil Guruharshai, District Ferozepur, Joginder Singh alias Bittu, private accomplice of Patwari, Parminder Singh, A.S.M. Fard Kendra Guruharshai, Kulwinder Singh Relationship Manager, HDFC Bank, Branch Guruharshai and Guarantor Davinder Singh Village Kohar Singh Wala, District Ferozepur. Among these accused, Joginder Singh alias Bittu, Amarjit Singh Patwari and Davinder Singh have been arrested.
Giving details of this case, he informed that the said case has been registered after investigation of a complaint number 89/19 of Ferozepur. During the investigation of this complaint, it was found that the said Navdeep Singh, Vinod Kumar Patwari, Joginder Singh alias Bittu and Parminder Singh A.S.M. in connivance with each other, prepared fake 'fards' (extract of land ownership) by making fake entries in the revenue records, on the basis of which, in the year 2016, Navdeep Singh got a credit limit of Rs 40 lakh from HDFC bank in collusion with bank employees.
The spokesperson added that later on coming to know about this scam, the said accused in the year 2019 deposited the entire amount obtained from the bank. Similarly, in another crime, Navdeep Singh of village Kohar Singh Wala in 2016 applied to take a loan from Canara Bank Faridkot, but he dishonestly didn't mentioned the Khasra numbers of the land already pledged with the HDFC bank Guruharshahai and the Canara bank declined this loan case.
Apart from this, the said accused Joginder Singh alias Bittu had filed a case to get a credit limit of 32 lakh rupees from Axis Bank Jalalabad, District Fazilka by preparing a fake fards of 122 Kanal 13 Marla in his name, but the bank came to know about the fake documents during physical verification and declined the same agricultural credit limit. After the transfer of Vinod Kumar Patwari, Amarjit Singh Patwari despite knowing the facts didn't took any action against the said persons for forging the revenue documents, namely Vinod Kumar Patwari, Joginder Singh Private Assistant of Patwari and Parminder Singh A.S.M., instead he prepared a report regarding the correctness of the entries of those fake pledges and got its approval from Halka Kanungo and Tehsildar Guruharshai. Apart from this, Kulwinder Singh, Relationship Manager, HDFC Bank branch Guruharshai helped the accused in obtaining agricultural credit limit by physically verifying the land with fake fard. Similarly, guarantor Davinder Singh of village Kohar Singh Wala gave false guarantee/testimony on Navdeep Singh's forged documents.
The spokesperson said that in this regard a case under section 13 (1) (A), 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and section 409, 420, 465, 466, 467, 471, 120-B of IPC have been registered against all the said seven accused at VB Police Station Ferozepur Range. The rest of the accused would also be arrested soon.