Sarpanch, property dealer chargesheeted for land fraud in Jammu

JAMMU: The Jammu crime branch on Friday produced a chargesheet before a local court against a sarpanch and a property dealer in a land fraud case, officials said.

The accused, identified as Karanjeet Singh and Rajinder Singh alias Rinku (naib sarpanch), both residents of Suchetgarh, in Ranbir Singh Pura sub-division, had allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy and cheated the complainant, Maqsood Ahmed, from the same sub-division.

The complainant had purchased a plot of 15 marlas at Drawtay in RS Pura from Karanjeet Singh, a property dealer, and naib sarpanch Rajinder Singh for a monetary consideration of ₹27 lakh. For this, he had paid ₹15 lakh as advance.

Later, ₹10 lakh were deposited in the account of accused, Rajinder Singh, and ₹5 lakh was paid in cash to accused Karanjeet Singh.

Accordingly, an agreement deed was signed on December 26, 2020.

“The complainant approached accused Karanjeet Singh for balance payment and execution of sale deed, but accused refused to do so. He approached him again with a request to refund his payment in case he is not able to handover him possession, to which Karanjeet Singh threatened to kill the victim’s family,” an official spokesperson said.

The accused issued cheques in favour of the victim, which were dishonoured by banks due to insufficient balance, thus duping the complainant on the pretext of sale of land.

During investigation, all material evidence, in the form of documentary record, was collected from quarters concerned and statements of complainants and witnesses were recorded. The offences were established against both the accused for cheating and duping the complainant of ₹20 lakh.

Both the accused did not co-operate in the investigation and were arrested by the Jammu crime branch on December 6 and 7, and a chargesheet has been produced against them in the court of law, the spokesperson added.