Ex-akali minister Kairon’s aide among 4 booked for fraud

Accused had not paid around ₹2.5 crore of various transporters in the state and was instead threatening them by using his political clout. KARANDEEP SINGH , complainant

TARN TARAN : An aide of former Akali Dal minister Adaish Partap Singh Kairon was among four people who were booked on Friday for allegedly giving a fake receipt of ₹50 lakh to a Pattibased truck owner.

The accused are Gurmukh Singh aka Ghulla, political adviser to Kairon and a resident of Patti, Sitara Singh of Daliri village, Gurinder Singh of Pangota village and Bikramjit Singh of Amritsar.

The complainant, Karandeep Singh of Patti, told the police that he is a farmer and owns three trucks which he had rented out to the president of the local truck union.

“During the tenure of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government in Punjab, Ghulla controlled the Patti truck union. Most of the transport contracts of the state food and civil supplies department were decided by him. He had not paid around ₹2.5 crore of various transporters in the state and was instead threatening them by using his political clout,” Karandeep said.

He said he was also to receive ₹3 lakh from Ghulla as rent of his trucks.

“On March 28, Ghulla met me at the Tarn Taran deputy commissioner’s office. When I asked for my money, he handed me over a ₹50 lakh receipt saying that he had given my money to Baldev Singh, a former president of the truck union. But Baldev Singh’s signature on the receipt were found be to be fake,” he said.

A case under Sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 380 (theft in dwelling house etc) and 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of IPC was registered against the accused at the Patti (city) police station.

Sub inspector Karanjt Singh, investigating officer, said the accused have been absconding.