With the rising number of land dispute and land record forgery cases coming up in Haridwar, the State Government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is tasked to resolve the property matters and to arrest the accused on priority basis, if needed, said IG Garhwal Sanjay Gunjyal at Mela Control Tower on Wednesday.
He said SIT’s success in Dehradun over the past one year has inspired them to introduce it in Haridwar too. Citing an example of how quick SIT is in resolving such cases, he said that a land dispute cropping up in Salempur village had been resolved within 24 hours with the accused being arrested. He also said that the accused would be arrested once the charges are found genuine.
Dwelling on the Salempur case, he said that a complaint was lodged by Himanshu Chauhan of Dheerwali in Jwalapur against one Mohammad Anwar of Salempur for making fake registry of a plot of land for Rs2.5 lakh. The accused was arrested within 24 hours after the matter was probed and documents were verified. “We are interrogating many regarding complaints lodged by the persons who claim to have been duped. Actions would follow promptly,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the SIT team comprises one additional police superintendent, one superintendent, five sub-inspectors, five head constables and five constables. They have been given special training by the departments of revenue, registry, the CBI and those dealing with cases of money laundering.
Stating how SIT was conceived, Gunjyal said, “We were rather flooded with land forgery cases coming up in Dehradun district. We thus planned to constitute the SIT exclusively meant to deal with such type of cases. In the year 2015, 425 complaints were received out of which 288 were sorted out. Eighty five accused, including a few powerful property dealers, have been arrested. Till date, six history-sheeters have been marked and three have been grilled.”