Six booked for forgery

SHIMLA, Dec 7: The state police today registered a criminal case against six persons, including a property dealer, who were allegedly inv...

SHIMLA, Dec 7: The state police today registered a criminal case against six persons, including a property dealer, who were allegedly involved in the forgery of the revenue records to declare a non-Himachali as an agriculturist.

The action comes as a sequel to CM8217;s decision to unearth a racket relating to benami land deals and issuance of certificates of 8220;agriculturists8221; to non-Himachalis in order to violate the provisions of Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act. The law prohibits all non-agriculturists from purchasing land in the state.

According to police, one of the accused in the case had purchased land worth several crores in Solan district after he had entered into a conspiracy to forge revenue records related to Manewal village in Kotkhai tehsil. The persons booked, included two dismissed employees of the Revenue Department, Subash Chander Bhalla, a resident of Chandigarh, Amar Singh Bhardwaj and K.C. Dutta, both expert on Revenue Laws. The FIR was registered at the Kotkhai police station this morning.

Giving details, senior government official said that case relating to tempering of the records was inquired by the Theog sub-divisional officer civil Rajeev Sharma and he had submitted a report in 1995, holding that records were tempered after K.C. Dutta and Subash Chander Bhalla had entered into a conspiracy with kanungo Bhajan Das and patwari Bali Ram.

On the basis of the report both the officials were chargesheeted and later, inquiry report of the Shimla additional district magistrate law and order found them guilty of forging the record. They were dismissed on April 17, 1997.

However, only one aspect of the inquiry 8211; departmental had come to a logical conclusion. The other part relating to criminal conspiracy had been ignored by the previous government. To unearth the entire conspiracy, it was absolutely necessary to institute criminal proceedings particularly against the non-officials, said a government official.

The government had already initiated action under Section 118 at Solan against Bhalla, who had constructed flats at Solan.