Property fraud: High court directs police to complete inquiry in 90 days

The allegation was however denied by the Mohali Police in its response.

However,the court had handed over the investigation of the case from Mohali Police to Chandigarh Police. Directing the Chandigarh Police to conclude the inquiry and take necessary steps expeditiously.

In a significant development,the police has added offences of impersonation and forgery after Justice Ajai Lamba had slammed the Chandigarh Police for not adding appropriate offences in the FIR registered by it.

The FIR was registered after a delay of over seven months by the Chandigarh Police on a complaint moved by Dinesh Dureja,an accused in the case.

Dureja was booked by the Mohali Police in a case of cheating. He had moved the High Court alleging that the case was registered at the behest of Sanjiv Gupta,ADGP (Crime) and that the Chandigarh Police had taken no action on his complaint which he had filed in January this year.

Newsline was the first to report that the investigation of the case has been handed over from Mohali Police to Chandigarh Police.

Raising eyebrows over the alleged manipulations made in the Estate Office,Chandigarh with the regard to the property which is located in Chandigarh,the High Court had observed that “certain interpolations appear to have been made in the Estate Office for which investigation is required to be conducted even in context of the documents available in Estate Office”.

Dureja had alleged that while no action was taken by the Chandigarh Police for over seven months,the Mohali Police registered the FIR against him within two days after the order of the ADGP.

The High Court had also slammed Chandigarh Police for taking no action on Dureja’s complaint for over seven months.

“In case Chandigarh Police was vigilant and reasonably efficient,the inquiry in the complaint made on January 17 would have been completed within a reasonable period,which ideally should not have travelled beyond 30 days of receipt of the complaint. If the needful had been done by the Chandigarh Police,surely,the FIR would have been lodged sometime in February/March,2011”,reads the order.

The dispute

The dispute pertains to the sale of a residential house located in Sector 19,Chandigarh. The Mohali Police had registered a case against Dinesh for receiving a guarantee money of Rs 60 lakh which he claims not to have received. Challenging the jurisdiction of Mohali Police,the petitioner had averred that while the sale deed was executed in Panchkula and the property is in Chandigarh,the Mohali Police has no jurisdiction to register an FIR in the said case.