Sarpanch booked for fraud

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 18

Jasbir Singh, the Sarpanch of Bhagupur Bait village, falling under the Bhindisaida police station, has been booked for cheating and forgery.

He allegedly leased out the village common land for 20 years without taking the requisite permission from the District Development and Panchayat Department. A complaint was lodged by Gurpreet Singh, district DDPO (District Development and Panchayat Officer) in this regard. In the complaint, he stated that by leasing out the Panchayat land, he had caused huge losses to the state exchequer.

Following this, the police have registered a case under Sections 409, 420 and 120-B of the IPC and Section 13-A of the Village Common Land Act. The police authorities said that further investigations were underway and the suspect had been asked to join the probe.