Charges framed against mandi board exchief engineer

MOHALI: A local court on Monday framed charges against former chief engineer of Punjab Mandi Board and of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), Surinderpal Singh ‘Pehalwan’, in a case where he is accused of getting a government job by submitting a forged birth certificate. The case comes up for hearing on May 5, when the trial is likely to commence.

In July 2017, the vigilance had booked Surinderpal along with officials of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) -- Labh Singh and KK Bhandari - for tampering with the birth certificate. Surinderpal also faces a case for allegedly abusing his official position and amassing wealth by favouring certain construction companies.

As per the vigilance, Surinderpal was recruited as a junior engineer in the Mandi Board on January 28, 1993. The case was registered when during investigations his service book showed his date of birth as December 11, 1971, whereas his actual date of birth was December 11, 1967, which was mentioned in the 1984 result gazette of the PSEB.

He had mentioned the same date of birth in the documents for securing admission to Government Senior Secondary School, Pummiwala Fatta village, Muktsar district, in Class 9.

He was booked under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using a forged document) and 120-B of the IPC and relevant sections Prevention of Corruption Act .