The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) Monday arrested Jaskaran Singh Brar, Naib Tehsildar, a co-accused in the multi-crore guava compensation scam, after he surrendered before the investigating agency in Mohali. An official spokesperson of the state VB said Brar was named as an accused after his role was revealed during investigation that he connived with the main accused in releasing wrongful compensation to illegal beneficiaries. Before release of payments, it had come to light that names and shares of some landowners were not in accordance with the revenue records and some names have been added in the list of the beneficiaries wrongly without any basis as they had purchased land after issuance of notification under Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act. Moreover, the Naib Tehsildar had ignored tampered Khasra girdawari records and committed undue haste in recommending the release of payments by dealing with the noting file thrice in a single day. The spokesperson stated that initially Brar was granted interim relief with directions to join investigation by the Punjab and Haryana High Court vide its order on December 11, 2023. Subsequently, he joined the investigation but remained non-cooperative with the investigating agency. After this, the VB had opposed his bail application and eventually filed two replies and affidavits against his petition and rejoinder. He added that after numerous hearings and detailed arguments, the High Court on March 20 dismissed his anticipatory bail petition. Thereafter, Brar remained absconding and filed special leave petition seeking anticipatory bail in the Supreme Court. On July 27, after hearing about the role of the accused in this scam and his conduct of remaining evasive by managing various kinds of leave to avoid the process of law, the Supreme Court had also dismissed his anticipatory bail petition and directed him to surrender before the VB investigation officer within one week. The spokesperson said that the accused surrendered at VB police station, Flying Squad, Mohali, and was arrested.
