2 PSPCL officials, SDO booked for forgery

AMRITSAR:
HT Correspondent

GURU HARGOBIND SAHIB SEWA SOCIETY CHIEF FACES POLICE ACTION FOR USING HIS CLOUT TO GET POWER CONNECTIONS UNDER EX-SERVICEMEN QUOTA

The Amritsar rural police have registered a case under sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC against Baba Sajjan Singh, president of the Guru Hargobind Sahib Sewa Society, and three other persons, including officials of the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL).
The case was registered on Thursday at the Mattewal police station on the directions of SSP SPS Pawar. The baba heads the society which manages Gurdwara Guru-ke-Ber in Boparai village on the AmritsarMehta road.

The case was registered on the basis of an inquiry conducted by Majitha DSP Gursewak Singh way back in 2009. The inquiry report had

been kept in wraps as the baba enjoys a lot of political clout.
It was only after a lot of persuasion by the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) that the police finally decided to book the baba and the electricity officials.

Besides the Baba, the others named in the case are Shamsher Singh, a senior executive engineer of PSPCL, Jandiala SDO Mukhtiar Singh and Ashok Kumar Sood, a

retired junior engineer of the PSPCL. So far no arrests have been made in the case.
The inquiry was ordered by then SSP Gurmit Singh Chauhan on a complaint forwarded to his office by PHRO chairman Justice (retd) Ajit Singh Bains on October 5, 2009.

Though the inquiry report was submitted in the same month to the SSP, but the case was not registered as the baba enjoyed the backing of a powerful ruling party MLA of Amritsar district.

The PHRO alleged in its complaint that the baba got electricity connections for his tubewells against the ex-servicemen quota on the basis of forged documents. The PHRO, in its inquiry, traced six ex-servicemen in whose names the baba had obtained the connections.

The ex-servicemen were not aware that the PSPCL had issued tubewell connections to the baba, who also owns agriculture land in the vicinity of the gurdwara and at other places. The PHRO team, which also comprised Sarabjit Singh Verka, also found that the PSPCL officials, without verifying the details of the applications submitted by the baba, had given the go-ahead for issuing the power connections to the baba in the name of six exservicemen.
At the time of issuing the connections, Shamsher Singh was the SDO of the area, while Mukhtiar Singh and Sood were junior engineers. Shamsher and Mukhtiar have been promoted, while Sood has retired.

Sarabjit told HT the case had been registered after he had recently met Pawar.