Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrests Horticulture Development Officer in Guava orchard compensation scam

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India] January 30 : The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested Horticultural Development Officer (HDO) Jaspreet Singh Sidhu, who remained posted at Kharar and Dera Bassi, in SAS Nagar district. He was accused in the multi-crore Guava orchard compensation scam in SAS Nagar.
Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson of the state, VB, said initially that accused JS Sidhu had availed an interim bail from the High Court on 1.09.2023. However, the VB vehemently opposed his anticipatory bail petition and eventually filed three affidavits or counter-arguments as replies during lengthy and detailed arguments to seek his custodial interrogation.
The VB has categorically highlighted the call detail records showing the proximity of JS Sidhu with other accused beneficiaries, statements of various witnesses, tampered and forged documentary records, and differences between the report submitted with GMADA and the office copy of the same report retained in the state Horticulture Department.
Besides, category of the same plants was shown to be higher in report submitted with GMADA than that mentioned in the office copy of the same report, he added.
The spokesperson informed that subsequently, the High Court has dismissed his anticipatory bail petition on 24.01.2023. Thereafter, the accused HDO was continuously on the run and the VB was trying to trace him, whereby, he was duly arrested on Tuesday from SAS Nagar.
He added that the said accused had remained posted as HDO, Kharar for past 15 years continuously from 2004 to 2019 and was involved in evaluating market value of fruit bearing trees present on lands acquired by GMADA vide various acquisitions like Aerocity, IT City, Sector 88-89 etc.
Providing more details of this case, he informed that the VB has registered a case FIR in 2023 after unearthing huge scam pertaining to embezzlement of about Rs 137 crores released under the disguise of compensation for said Guava orchards situated on the land acquired for development of Aerotropolis city by acquiring agricultural land pertaining to some villages including village Bakarpur and others situated alongside the Airport Road in SAS Nagar city.
The spokesperson added that under the above said Act, determination of the age and category of fruit-bearing plants is crucial for calculating their market value and this assessment is typically done by horticulture officials.
That, the land under acquisition falls in the jurisdiction of Block- Kharar of the Horticulture Department, where accused Jaspreet Singh Sidhu was posted as HDO at Dera Bassi. However, the assessment work of these villages was given to him by his higher authorities without giving any reason/ justification.
That, fruit trees said to be present on about 180 acres of land were required to be evaluated by JS Sidhu, HDO, whereas, he had visited the land under acquisition only once for inspection/ evaluation and had managed to prepare assessment report pertaining to total 207 khasra numbers mentioned separately in the survey list of the LAC, GMADA.
Giving more details the spokesperson informed that the VB has so far arrested total 21 accused persons including beneficiaries and public servants namely, JS Johal, LAC, Vaishali, HDO, Bachitar Singh, Patwari etc. Eventually, some beneficiaries were given anticipatory bails in lieu of their offer to deposit 100 per cent of compensation amount by the High Court and other accused have also started availing parity.
Subsequently, the VB has approached Supreme Court challenging the bail orders of the High Court and after considering the facts Supreme Court has issued notices to the accused respondents.
The High Court has ordered various accused beneficiaries to deposit total amount of Rs 72.36 crores out of which Rs 43.72 Crores have been deposited as on date.