COURTESY HT DEC 30

PWD files recovery suit against Rana Sodhi, kin
Petition seeks criminal action against cabinet minister, others for “playing fraud on court, state”
Gagandeep Jassowal

gagandeep@htlive.com

JALANDHAR : The public works department (PWD) on Tuesday filed a recovery suit against Punjab cabinet minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi alias Guru Gurmeet Singh and his family members --- brother Guru Hardeep Singh and nephews, Prabhjot Singh and Jasdeep Singh --- in the Guruharsahai court for allegedly pocketing double compensation against a piece of land acquired by the state government for a road project. One Joginder Singh has also been named in the petition.

The department has also made Gurharsahai SDM, a respondent in the matter. The court has fixed the next hearing on January 4.

The said land at Mohanki Attar village had been acquired for the Ferozepur-Fazilka-Gurharsahai road. The family received ₹1.83 crore compensation in 2013 for the land after re-acquisition in 2012, which, as per records, was also acquired in 1962 and a sum of ₹7,384 paid. The land — 55 kanal and 6 marla of Rana Sodhi and 38 kanal of his nephew Jasdeep Sodhi (son of Hardeep Singh) — was re-acquired by the Punjab government and compensation was paid after the owners approached the court.

In the petition, a copy in possession of Hindustan Times, the PWD has pleaded that land awards should be set aside by the court as Sodhi family had obtained these by “playing fraud on the court and state by concealing facts”. The petition also urged criminal action against Rana Sodhi and others.

In the suit, the department also urged the court to set aside the 2005 decree passed by the civil judge, Ferozepur, in this matter. The petition further said that the factum of the acquisition of the land and the compensation already paid, was not brought to the notice of the court of the civil judge in 2005.

“The state has also sought restitution of compensation worth Rs 1.83 crore paid to Rana Sodhi and his family members in the year 2014 against the illegal re-acquisition of the land in 2012,” reads the petition.

The state also urged the court for permanent injunction restraining them from claiming the enhancement of the compensation under new land acquisition law, which was ordered 2015. In March 2020, a government sub-committee found that Rana Sodhi’s family has got double compensation for the land.

Rana Sodhi said the matter was sub-judice. A contempt petition was pending before the Punjab and Haryana high court, he added. “Whatever the Punjab government officials are saying is totally immaterial and false as they have their own motives. They are just resorting to witch-hunting. I don’t want to comment on them”, Sodhi told HT/

As per December 17 order of high court in this matter, the government has been directed to deposit re-determined amount of land compensation of 2015, in the court concerned within one week. The re-determination of compensation has been upheld even by the Supreme Court