Plots were sold by 14 people “fraudulently.”

In the Lohara neighborhood of the city, there seems to have been a significant scam involving the “fraudulent” sale of parcels of property belonging to “Loh langar.” Up to now, 14 people—including the father-in-law of a former councillor—have been charged with selling plots by constructing an illegal colony on the “Loh langar” property. A group of New Mandeep Colony, Lohara, residents made the complaint in May of last year, but the police just filed the first case on Saturday.

Avtar Singh, Guljinder Singh, Gurnam Singh, Daljit Singh Jhajj, Jasminder Singh, Jasvir Singh, Simranjit Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Kuljeet Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Parveen Kumar Gupta, and Varinder Kumar Ohri are the names of the accused. They have not yet been taken into custody. In this case, further police investigation is in progress.

Together with many other New Mandeep Colony, Lohara, inhabitants, Kuldeep Kumar Tiwari said that plots in the colony, which was built on 16 acres, were bought by individuals in a range of sizes, up to 200 square yards. On the property, roughly 150 homes and 15 stores have been built. He said that the suspects had deceitfully sold the victims plots worth crores of rupees, committing a scam against them.

The complainants claimed that Avtar and Nirmal, among others, were among the suspects from whom plots had been acquired. They had subsequently been given registers in their names. The filing of the First Information Report (FIR) took over 11 months, and the identity of one of the main suspects was missing.

The complainants claimed to be in possession of the plots, but on May 17, 2023, the relevant tehsildar and municipal corporation put up a notice board in the area declaring that the property belonged to “Loh Langar” and “mahants” and that plots on it could not be sold. There are also questions about why the suspects’ schemes to sell plots to individuals in 2019 were allowed to continue by the government authorities at the time. They claimed that by selling plots on the property and going against the state government’s regulations, the accused had committed fraud.

The locals are putting pressure on the government to provide justice. Numerous individuals from UP, Bihar, and other states bought plots in the colony that the accused built on the “loh langar” property. The impacted individuals committed their life savings to buy plots in the colony and are now demanding justice.

Gurdeep Singh, the investigating officer, said that the investigation was still underway. A case has been brought under the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation (PAPR) Act and many sections of the IPC.