Patiala Scandal: Garg Was In Continuous Touch With Charged: Punjab Vigilance Bureau

In its first chargesheet in the Patiala land scandal, the Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) stated tha ex Patiala deputy commissioner Vikas Garg was in continuous touch with the charged and had acted as the executor for selling government property after declaring it as private.

The chargesheet has named naib-tehsildar GS Walia as the key player of the scandal.

The vigilance bureau stated in its challan that Vikas charged around Rs. 80 lakh and Walia took Rs. 1.05 crore for accomplishing the act. It stated that the patwari and the kanungo took around Rs. 3.5 lakh and Rs. 2.5 lakh, respectively, for altering the papers. The charged then sold off prime administrative land valued around Rs. 250 crore to private people.

To confirm that the land under consideration belongs to the administration, the vigilance bureau has done scores of groundwork and tied papers going back to 1951, 1952 and 1957 to make it a watertight case.

Spelling problem for all the charged in the case, comprising Vikas and Walia, district revenue officer (DRO) Rajbir Singh has become an approver in the case and forwarded a report in court under section 164, CrPC that Garg and Walia were in close cooperation with the charged.

The Punjab vigilance bureau challan has also set up this charge by producing the phone info of Vikas to explain that he was in continuous touch with charged Yashpal Aggarwal, his family member Munish Aggarwal and NP Singh.

Though the challan has been made against Yashpal Aggarwal, Jaswant Singh and Devinder Sandhu, who are in prison, its main focus is on how these individuals betrayed the administration in league with functionaries.

“Walia introduced the sellers and buyers to the DC. After that, they all made a plan that Walia would send the case file to the DC for guidance. After discussing the matter, the DC would pass verbal directions to the DRO, who would then put his remarks on the file, saying, ‘File discussed with DC’. As per the report submitted by the naib-tehsildar, there is nothing on merit to deny the sale deed.’ Acting on this plan, Walia later executed the sale deed,” the DRO told the court, stating that Garg himself introduced the charged to him in the DC office.

The VB has named 45 spectators in the case, comprising divisional commissioner SR Ladhar, who carried out the investigation, vigilance inspector general V Neerja, SSP Pritam Singh, former deputy commissioner Deepinder Singh and tehsildar AS Thind. Deepinder and Thind have stated that the land belonged to the administration.