Chandigarh, Aug 10 (PTI) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Thursday booked a retired district development and panchayat officer (DDPO) and seven others in connection with an alleged land scam in Pathankot district.

Retired DDPO Kuldeep Singh, who was also holding the charge of additional deputy commissioner in Pathankot, had allegedly committed irregularities by transferring 91.75 acres of panchayat land to some private individuals on February 27, a day before his retirement, a spokesperson said.

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On August 4, Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma issued directions for registering an FIR against Singh and other beneficiaries, the official said.

Following this, a case under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code was registered against Singh and others -- Veena Parmar, Inderdeep Kaur, Bharati Banta, Tarsem Rani, Balwinder Kaur, Manjit Kaur and Parveen Kumari, the spokesperson said.

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Inderdeep and Bharati have been arrested and efforts were on to nab the other accused, the official said.

(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)