Thind's bail plea hearing on Nov 20, court asks for documents

Patiala, Nov 13 (UNI) A local court today directed arrested Himachal cadre senior IPS officer B S Thind's counsel to produce documents in the court pertaining to the claim that he had deposited or paid back the entire loan amount of various banks, and fixed November 20 as the next date of hearing of his bail plea.

Himachal Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), CID and Law and Order, B S Thind, presently lodged in Patiala Central Jail, had been arrested by the CBI from his Chandigarh residence on October 27 on the charges of cheating, forgery and land grabbing in Himachal Pradesh.

The CBI court has already rejected the bail application of Thind.

The defense counsel today stated that the senior IPS officer had deposited and paid back all the loan money taken from various banks, following which Additional Sessions Judge Bhupinder Singh directed that the documents to substantiate the same be produced in the court.

During the arguments, the CBI prosecutors alleged that B S Thind had made forged registrations of the land and paid back only Rs 20 lakh to the banks. Whereas the defence contended the claim and made counter allegations that during the raid and search operations the CBI took away all the documents including the original registries of land and other documents.

The defense, however, said they would produce the certified copies of the sub-registrar to substantiate their claims and also produce the copies to prove that Thind had returned the loan amount over Rs one crore to various banks.

The judge, however, has given one weeks time to B S Thind to prove their claim.

A case against the ADGP and some real estate promoters by the name of M/s Shalimar Land Enclave Private Limited, Mani Majra, Chandigarh, was registered in 2004 that pertained to bank frauds and land grabbing.

Initially, the case was registered against the proprietor of M/s Shalimar land Enclave, Prem Chand Singla, and the Chief Manager of State Bank of India, Mr Lokesh Sharma, on a written complaint filed by the Punjab Vigilance Department.

However, later it was established that the ADGP was also involved in the fraud. The proprietors of the said enclave including Arun Singla, Harinder Singh Saini, Tarsinder Garg and Ram Kumar were also booked in the case.

It was found that ADGP had taken a number of loans on a single plot by mortgaging it to different banks. Though, Thind was not directly named in the first information report, however, later during the course of investigation, his name cropped up. Later, it was also detected that he had several plots in the enclave.

Thind had taken a loan of Rs ten lakh from State Bank of India, Sector 16, Panchkula. He also sought 15 housing loans aggregating to Rs 3.45 crore from various banks by allegedly submitting forged documents.

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