No headway in 9-yr-old cheque-bounce case

The property was entangled in yet another dispute soon after the cheque bounced — a fraud case was registered by the Economic Offences Wing; the court order is pending before the Estate Office and the accused NRI woman continues to be absconding. Amid all this,the victim running from pillar to post,nine years after the cheque bounced.

Gurmit Singh,a caretaker by profession,was handed over a cheque of Rs 55 lakh by Balwant Kaur Gill in 2000 following a business deal. The cheque was dishonoured and Gill failed to appear in court. She was declared a proclaimed offender on October 20,2007. A specific portion of her 6 kanal house in Sector 9 was ordered to be attached as per Section 83 of the CrPC. The accused,being a Canadian citizen,reportedly fled to Canada.

Much to the complainant’s dismay,allegedly on the basis of a forged attorney,five accused got the said land transferred in their favour. The five residents of the house who were sold a part of the land by Gill — Arun Gupta,Pradeep Gupta,Meenakshi Gupta,Rekha Gupta,Sudhir Gupta — were alleged to have misused the general power of attorney handed over to them by attaching the remaining two kanal land in their favour. They were authorised to hold a specific share of the land,which was of 4 kanal,but allegedly acquired the land illegally to avoid attachment orders.

A complaint was filed by Gurmit and after an investigation that took six months,a criminal case was registered with the EOW against the five. A chargesheet has been filed in the court against the five and another accused Dr R P S Sethi for forging papers (documents in possession of Newsline).

“It’s been close to two years and I am stuck moving from the police station to court and knocking at the doors of the bureaucrats. There seems to be no justice for me despite court orders,” said Gurmit. Additional Deputy Commissioner,I S Sandhu,said the matter is sub judice and the land has already been involved in a dispute,thus delaying the matter.

The then investigating officer in the case,Sub-Inspector Sri Parkash,said the police has already filed a chargesheet in court and completed their investigation. Pardeep Gupta,one of the accused said they have been unnecessarily framed in the case. “The dispute is between the NRI woman and Gurmit. We are unnecessarily dragged into litigation,we are the legal owners of the land and have documents to prove it,” he said.