Haryana IAS officer’s brother among three booked for forgery

AMBALA: Haryana Police have booked the brother of an IAS officer and two others for their alleged involvement in financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 25 crore, officials privy to the development said on Saturday.

The action comes following the orders of Haryana home minister Anil Vij who had received a complaint from IAS officer Virender Singh Lather.

As per the FIR, the accused are Joginder Singh Lather, elder brother of Virender, Rajinder Singh Bisht and Pawan Kumar, a bank manager from Delhi.

Virender is a 2014-batch Haryana-cadre IAS officer posted as commissioner of the Ambala municipal corporation since February. In his complaint, Virender claimed that his brother got a loan worth Rs 25 crore sanctioned for Prabhu Dayal Memorial Religious and Educational Association by mortgaging his immovable property. The IAS officer said his brother used unregistered documents with his forged signatures in connivance with two other persons and officials of a centralised bank.

“In March 2019, during my posting in Chandigarh, I received a letter about the auction of a land in which I had one-third share. Later, I came to know about the unpaid loan due to which the notice was received. After checking case files, I found the signatures of Bisht as power of attorney on loan documents. However, I had never given such rights to the Trust and my brother gave Bisht the power of attorney by forging my signatures,” Virender told the police.

He further added that a complaint was filed in April 2019 against the bank official and later an appeal was filed in a local court. “The court sought the status report, which the police furnished after which my case was dismissed,” he mentioned in his complaint.

Despite repeated attempts, Joginder’s comments couldn’t be elicited. However, Bisht refuted the allegations and claimed that Virender was misusing his post as an officer.