3 held for duping 36 Sangrur farmers; ₹57 lakh, gold seized
SANGRUR: Police have arrested three persons for defrauding 36 farmers in the district and recovered ₹57 lakh and 2.6kg gold from them.
The accused have been identified as Satnam Singh (the mastermind) of Ladda, Sattar Khan of Palasaur and Harwinder Singh alias Babbu of Dhuri.
The three, who were running an arhatiya shop, had fled to Azerbaijan and then to Thailand from where they were deported after the Punjab Police shared information about them with their Thai counterparts.
They were arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi the moment they landed there the nextday on December 21, said deputy inspector general (DIG, Patiala range) Sukhchain Singh Gill at a press conference on Tuesday.
After interrogation, the police recovered the cash and gold from Satnam’s house, he said.
The three accused are on police remand till Wednesday, DIG Gill informed.
“Satnam worked at an arhatiya’s shop as a ‘munim’ (accountant) in Dhuri a decade ago. Later, he started his own business of an arhatiya with Sattar and Babbu
ACCUSED ARRESTED AT DELHI AIRPORT AFTER THEY WERE DEPORTED BY THAILAND POLICE WHO ALERTED THEIR PUNJAB COUNTERPARTS
his employees,” said the DIG.
First, Satnam cheated on his employer Charanjit Singh, an arhatiya from Dhuri, and transferred ₹83.53 lakh of different farmers into his bank account. Later on, he issued cheques to farmers for crop payment but they were dishonoured due to insufficient balance in his account, the police said, adding they spent ₹16 lakh abroad
“The issue came to light when C ha ranj it and some farmers filed a complaint against Satnam on November 8 in Dhuri. They were nabbed by the Thai police when they were about to flee to Australia and deported them to India,” said Sangrur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu.