The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has booked Moga Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Charumita for alleged lapses in approving a Rs 3.7-crore compensation award for land along the Dharamkot-Shahkot section of National Highway 703.
VB SP Manjit Singh said the FIR has been filed under Sections 13(1)(a) and 13(7) of the Prevention of Corruption Act on the basis of the findings of an inquiry jointly conducted by the revenue and PWD departments.
The PWD had chargesheeted Charumita in September and formally requested a Vigilance probe. The state government had ordered her suspension on November 6.
Officials said the land had originally been acquired in 1963 by PWD (B&R), Ferozepur, for road construction. However, during the highway widening project in 2014, the same land was treated as “newly acquired,” and in 2019, a compensation of Rs 3.7 crore was approved. It is alleged that this award was granted without verifying the original 1963 acquisition records, which were reportedly missing then.
Since Moga district was part of Ferozepur in 1963, the disappearance of old revenue records put the Ferozepur district administration under the scanner. An FIR regarding the missing files was registered earlier this month on a complaint by the Ferozepur Deputy Commissioner.
After Charumita’s suspension, the Moga administration resumed search for the missing files and recovered the 1963 revenue records relating to the land originally acquired by the PWD.
Investigators suspect that several people might have fraudulently claimed and received double compensation, first for the land acquired in 1963 and then again in 2019 for the newly acquired land. This nexus is said to have led to the ADC’s suspension.
Vigilance SP Manjit Singh said the FIR against Charumita is based on departmental inquiry findings. Further investigations are on to identify all the beneficiaries and officials involved and the financial losses caused to the state exchequer.
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