Mohali: Co-accused in guava orchard compensation scam granted bail

Arrested last week by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in connection with the guava orchard compensation scam, Sukhdev Singh, a co-accused in the case, was granted bail by a Mohali court on Friday.

While granting bail, the court of additional district and sessions judge Baljinder Singh Sran directed Sukhdev to furnish a bail bond of ₹50,000.

During the last hearing on February 17, Sukhdev in his bail application had pleaded that he owed approximately ₹2.40 crore, which he intended to deposit in court.

Through his lawyer, HS Dhanoa, he had submitted a demand draft with his bail application, on which the court had reserved its decision.

On February 12, the Vigilance Bureau had arrested Sukhdev for playing a key role in the criminal conspiracy through fraud, forgery and tampering with government records. His actions caused losses worth crores to the government treasury while securing illegal financial benefits through bribery.

Falsely claimed presence of guava orchards to claim ₹12-cr compensation

The bureau’s investigation revealed that during the land acquisition process for the Aerotropolis project in Mohali in 2016-17, Sukhdev purchased 3 kanals and 16 marlas of land in Bakarpur village with the intent of illegally claiming higher compensation by falsely asserting the presence of guava orchards.

He then conspired with Bhupinder Singh, the main accused and a resident of Bakarpur village, to fabricate the existence of old guava orchards on the acquired land. They colluded with the horticulture development officer concerned to falsely certify the trees as over three years old and fruit-bearing during the valuation process.

According to the investigation, there was an agreement between Sukhdev and Bhupinder under which the former would cover all expenses, including bribing officials, while the latter would retain two-thirds of the fraudulently obtained compensation from the Land Acquisition Collector (LAC) of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) through bribery and influence.

To conceal the fraud, the original land records of Bakarpur village were tampered with, and a fake land register was prepared in 2019. Bhupinder, in connivance with revenue patwari Bachittar Singh, manipulated land records to falsely establish the presence of mature guava orchards. As a result, Sukhdev and his wife, Harbinder Kaur, fraudulently obtained ₹2,40,96,442 and ₹9,57,86,642, respectively, totalling nearly ₹12 crore from GMADA.

Further investigation revealed that to compensate Bhupinder for his share of the illegally acquired funds, Sukhdev sold approximately 6 bighas of land in Chappar Chiri village, Mohali district, to Bhupinder at an undervalued price in 2022. Similarly, 32 kanals of land owned by Harbinder in Kalo village, Mohali, was also sold to Bhupinder at a lower price.

Despite repeated summons, Sukhdev evaded legal proceedings and did not cooperate with the investigation. Unlike other co-accused beneficiaries, he neither voluntarily deposited the fraudulently obtained compensation amount into the treasury nor sought anticipatory bail from the court.

So far, other co-accused have deposited ₹86 crore, and with the recovery of ₹12 crore from Sukhdev, the total amount recovered will reach ₹100 crore.

So far, a total of seven government employees and 16 private persons have been arrested, and further investigation is ongoing.