Punjab: AAP candidate among 14 booked for land-grabbing case

Cases have been registered against 14 people, including AAP's candidate from Ferozepur (Urban) Narinder Singh Sandha

Ferozepur, Nov 26: Fourteen people, including an AAP candidate for the next year's state polls, have been booked in an alleged land-grabbing case here, police said today.

Cases have been registered against 14 people, including AAP's candidate from Ferozepur (Urban) Narinder Singh Sandha, in a two-year-old complaint by former Congress MLA Ravinder Singh alias Babbal, they said.

Babbal had lodged a complaint with the police to investigate the matter regarding the alleged grabbing of a Waqf Board land adjacent to city police station which was earlier used for the residence of SHO and DSP.

"I had come to meet the SHO and DSP for public related works at the place but was shocked to see some showrooms coming up at the location," the complainant said, adding "certain people" had reportedly got the land allocated in their names and sold it further.

"The land for a very long time housed the residence of SHO and DSP and till 2000, the police department paid rent for it to the Wakf board," police said. However, later an SHO set up a traffic post here and the accommodation was reduced to a ramshackle, police said.

"After investigations the police yesterday registered cases under relevant sections of the IPC against more than dozen persons. However, I do not know if any of them is an AAP candidate," SSP Ferozepur R K Bakhi said.

Sandha alleged the case against him was filed at the behest of the ruling dispensation as the complainant was a "close relative of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal".

"I have already given all evidence and supporting documents to the police," he said, adding SAD and Congress were trying to implicate AAP leaders in false cases fearing defeat in the ensuing polls.

Meanwhile, AAP's Ferozepur coordinator Pankaj Ranga said the case seemed politically motivated. However, if there is any substance in it the party will surely take cognisance of the same, he added.

PTI