*VB arrests absconding accused in Jalandhar Improvement Trust land embezzlement case*

Chandigarh, January 28: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has on Saturday arrested accused Gurdeep Singh, who has been absconding for about 3 years and 5 months in the embezzlement case pertaining to the land of Improvement Trust Jalandhar. In this case total of 12 accused have been arrested so far and the search for the rest is going on.

Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the VB said that 94.97 acres of land was acquired by the Improvement Trust Jalandhar in Surya Enclave extension, but at the time of paying the compensation, many accused has embezzled the compensation amount to the tune of Rs 5,49,18,523 in the names of fake persons and by preparing forged documents of the Improvement Trust in conniving with Trust officials. In this regard a FIR No. 244 dated 29-10-2013 under sections 409, 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 201, 120B of IPC and section 7, 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act at police station, New Barandri Jalandhar was registered which was later transferred to the VB for further investigation.

The spokesperson further said in this case the accused Gobind Ram, embezzled an amount of Rs. 2,12,76,211 with the connivance of the officers/employees of the Improvement Trust by preparing fake documents and out of this amount, Rs. 7,00,000 was received by the above said accused Gurdeep Singh through cheques from accused Gobind Ram.

The spokesman further informed that in this case accused Manjit Sharma, Sukhdev Singh Patwari, Prem Prakash, lawyer Mohit Bhardwaj, lawyer Deepak Sadana, Amandeep Singh, Kulwant Singh, Jatinder Kumar Sharma, Tarlok Singh, Sandeep Sharma and Surinder Kumar Cashier had already been arrested. In order to arrest the rest of the absconding accused, the Vigilance Bureau is conducting raids at their residences and other places, who would also be arrested soon, he added.