MOHALI, Aug 1 — A farmer from Gharuan village in Mohali was allegedly cheated out of more than ₹1.5 crore by a group of fraudsters who posed as land dealers and forged documents to sell him a non-existent plot of land.
The complainant, Amarjit Singh, who owns 25 bighas of land, told police that he was searching for agricultural land about a month and a half ago when he met a man identifying himself as Jeet Singh, who introduced himself as a land dealer. Jeet claimed he worked with an experienced team handling such transactions.
According to Amarjit, Jeet then introduced him to two others — Bahadur Singh, who also went by the alias Avtar Singh, and Gurmeet Singh. The trio showed Amarjit a parcel of land in Loharmajra village and even provided a forged site map to establish legitimacy.
Convinced by their claims, Amarjit issued a cheque of ₹5 lakh as an advance payment. The deal was allegedly finalised on July 23, when the accused came to Gharuan with stamp papers. Amarjit paid ₹52 lakh in cash and issued another cheque worth ₹1.025 crore.
However, when he later revisited the property site, locals informed him that Bahadur Singh neither lived in the area nor had any ownership or connection with the land in question. It was only then that Amarjit realised the Aadhaar cards and other documents provided by the accused were fabricated.
Police have registered a case against Avtar Singh alias Bahadur Singh, Jeet Singh, and Gurmeet Singh under Sections 319(2), 316(2), 318(4), 61(2), 336(2), 336(3), and 340(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating, fraud, and criminal conspiracy.
Investigations are ongoing, and no arrests had been made at the time of filing this report.
