Punjab Government on Friday put under suspension the services of Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officer Dr Anupreet Kaur on graft charges.
The suspension comes within a week after the State Police booked six persons, including Dr Anupreet Kaur, for bungling Rs 1.63 crore in the name of land acquisition for newly constructed 175-km-long Amritsar-Bathinda national highway (NH-54), being developed at an estimated cost of Rs 2,893 crore.
“After investigation, Dr Kaur and four others were implicated in a case of fraud in the Patti police station limits of Tarn Taran district. She has been accused with graft of Rs 1.36 crore in the construction of National Highway in Patti. She was then the Sub Divisional Magistrate of Patti,” said Tarn Taran Deputy Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal.
Dr Kaur is currently posted as assistant commissioner (AC), grievances, Jalandhar. She was also in news in 2015 after her estranged husband Bachitar Singh, a former Kabbadi player of India team, was arrested in a dowry case.
The PCS officer was the competent authority for land acquisition (CALA)-cum-Patti SDM from early 2018 to February 2019, when she fraudulently transferred the amount in the bank accounts of five persons, who were identified as Jasbir Kaur of Manawala village and Bikramjit Singh of Hoshiar Nagar in Amritsar and Rajwinder Kaur of Mehmoodpura village, Sartaj Singh and Gurmeet Kaur of Kot Dasandi Mall village in Tarn Taran.
As per information, the matter came to Tarn Taran DC Sabharwal’s notice that Rs 40.63 lakh of compensation money was fraudulently transferred in the account of one of the accused, Jasbir Kaur, through two cheques from SDM Patti’s account in January and February this year. After this, the DC marked an inquiry into the case to the current Patti SDM Navraj Brar.
During the inquiry, Dr Kaur’s bank account statement from August 2018 to August 2019 was accessed and it was found that Rs 42.23 lakh was transferred in the account of Rajwinder Kaur, Rs 18.6 lakh in Sartaj Singh’s account, Rs 39.74 lakh in Bikramjit’s account and Rs 22.41 lakh in Gurmeet Kaur’s bank account through different cheques signed by the then SDM Anupreet.
After this, Brar sought land record of five accused from Patti tehsildar which shows that the accused’s land was never acquired for the NH-54.