Vigilance Bureau arrests Retd PCS Officer Jagdish Johal in multi-crore Guava plants compensation scam

Published on: 21 Jul 2023 at 12:06 PM

Published by: thefactnews

The Fact News Service

Chandigarh, July 21

Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Thursday arrested Retired PCS Officer Jagdish Singh Johal, who was Land Acquisition Collector (LAC) of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), in connection with multi-crore Guava trees compensation scam.

This is the 20th arrest in the scam wherein compensation worth crores of rupees was wrongfully claimed in lieu of land acquired by GMADA at village Bakarpur in SAS Nagar (Mohali) district.

Revealing the details here today, an official spokesperson of the VB said that Jagdish Singh Johal was instrumental in approving disbursals of wrongful payments to accused beneficiaries on the basis of tailor made assessment report containing names and shares of said beneficiaries in contravention with the Revenue records.

Pertinently, two Retired Patwaris Surinderpal Singh and Surinderpal, then posted at the LAC Branch of GMADA, were also arrested last week in the case.

During the interrogation, the Spokesperson said, they disclosed that initially they refused to certify the payment forms as names of owners and shares mentioned in the assessment report of the Horticulture Department as it were different from actual owners and their shares as per the Revenue record. They alleged that the accused Jagdish Singh Johal exercised his influence and pressurised them to initiate noting for approval of disbursement of payments in accordance with the assessment report of Horticulture Department by ignoring Revenue records. Further as the LAC, the accused PCS officer approved the payments and subsequently released around Rs 124 Crores to various beneficiaries giving undue benefits to them while causing heavy losses to the exchequer.