Former IPS woman officer booked for fraud to claim family property

THE COMPLAINANT, A RETIRED IAS OFFICER CURRENTLY RESIDING IN US, IS WIDOW OF AN IPS OFFICER WHO WAS SHOT DEAD BY MILITANTS IN PATIALA IN 1987

BATHINDA : A retired Punjab woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Amrit Kaur Brar has been booked for cheating by allegedly concealing the will of her late father to gain property rights of her widow sister-in-law and her children.

A case under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was lodged at the NRI police station here on Friday, after a preliminary police investigation.

Patiala division assistant inspector general (AIG) for NRI cell Balraj Singh said the case is being investigated.

The complainant Sukhdeep Kaur Brar, a retired IAS officer currently residing in the US, is the widow of an IPS officer Avinder Singh Brar who was shot dead by terrorists in Patiala in 1987. He was then senior superintendent of police of Patiala district.

The accused Amrit is the younger sister of the slain officer. She was given a compassionate appointment as an assistant commandant in the Central Reserve Police Force. In 1993, she was taken on deputation in the Punjab Police and, five years later, absorbed as DSP in Punjab police.

She retired as AIG last year.

Amrit could not be reached immediately for her comment on the FIR against her.

According to the FIR, Avinder’s father Gurdarshan Singh had properties in Punjab and Delhi. In 2001, Gurdarshan had registered a will for distribution of properties among his family members. A preliminary police investigation found that as per the will of 2001, if Amrit gets married, she will get property only in Delhi whereas rest of the assets will go to Sukhdeep, her two children and Gurdarshan’s wife.

After her father’s demise in 2013, Amrit allegedly secured a share in her paternal properties located at Abulkhurana in Muktsar and Fazilka through a natural succession right.

In 2018, Sukhdeep filed a case in a Delhi high court to claim her share in the Delhi properties. According to a legal document submitted by Amrit in the court, she got married in 2009 and sold her inherited Delhi property.

The Delhi case is sub judice, according to the police report.

Officials of police’s NRI wing found that Amrit secured the Delhi properties through the will but the same will (that states she will lose property rights in other than Delhi assets after marriage) was concealed from all while claiming her share for properties in two locations in Punjab.

The police probe found that Amrit submitted only a death certificate to get a share of her father’s property in Punjab whereas she had produced will, that otherwise restricts her claim on the inherited properties, to the Delhi authorities to secure valuable assets there.