India News | Ex-PCS Officer Arrested in Rs 124 Cr Guava Tree Compensation Scam in Punjab's Mohali

Chandigarh, Jul 20 (PTI) A retired Punjab Civil Services officer was arrested by the the Punjab Vigilance bureau on Thursday in connection with the alleged multi-crore Guava trees compensation scam, the bureau said.

This is the 20th arrest in the scam in which a sum of around Rs 124 crore was wrongfully claimed in compensation for land acquired by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) in the Bakarpur village of SAS Nagar (Mohali) district, said the bureau in a statement.

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The accused, Jagdish Singh Johal, was the Land Acquisition Collector (LAC) of GMADA during the period the alleged scam happened.

Johal was instrumental in approving disbursal of wrongful payments to fake beneficiaries on the basis of tailor-made assessment reports containing their names and shares, the statement said.

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Two retired revenue officials, then posted at the LAC Branch of GMADA, were also arrested last week in the case.

During interrogation, they alleged that Johal exercised his influence and forced them to ignore the revenue records and initiate noting for approval of disbursement of payments in accordance with the assessment report of the horticulture department.

Johal then approved the payments and subsequently released around Rs 124 crore over a period to several people, causing heavy losses to the exchequer, the statement said.

To ensure payments to genuine beneficiaries, the Chief Administrator of GMADA had even ordered the LAC to personally inspect guava orchards, check records to ascertain the age of trees, and conduct a drone mapping survey and videography of the area.

Johal deliberately ignored all these checks and released payments in connivance with the fake beneficiaries, the bureau alleged in the statement.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)