JALANDHAR: A postgraduate unemployed youth and a retired panchayat officer have landed in Jail in their attempt to become rich by extorting money from the people by posing as militants. Hardial Singh Saini, a retired panchayat officer from Munak Kalan and Sainam Singh, a post graduate unemployed youth from Unmur, employed an ingenious method to extort money. Disclosing this at a press conference here, district police chief Suresh Arora and SP (detective) RajKishan Bedi said the two wrote a letter demanding R.s three lakh from one Sangat Singh of Gillzian village, All three villages are in the jurisdiction of Tanda police station in Hoshiarpur district, They said the panchayat officer had opened three fictitious bank accounts in the name of Wassan Singh at Punjab and Sind Bank branches at Dakoha (Jalandhae), Dasuya (Hoshiarpur) and at Dhanour Kale near Cherhatta.
The accused wrote the threaten ing letter to Sangat Singh on the letterhead of “Khalistan Commando Force” (Zaffarwal) which, is headed by Wassan Singh, the name by which they opened the account. The letter bore the fake signatures, of Wassan Singh Zaffarwal, Sher Singh Shera and Mehiab Singh, Mirankot, the names which they could easily have picked up from newspaper reports about militants.
The letter asked Sangat Singh to deposit R.s three lakh in account number 13244/54 in the Punjab and Sind Bank branch at Idakoha, situated on the outskirts of Jalandhar city.
It said “we are fighting for “Khalistan” and have contracted to buy R.s 10 crore worth arms from Pakistan and R.s 50 crore worth arms from China”, the officers disclosed.
They said the fake address of cone Wassan Singh of Talhan village in Jalandhar district was given for opening the account. Investigations revealed that a bank account holder witness, who is mandatory for opening a new account, disclosed the name of the panchayat officer who had asked him to bear witness to the new account. The officer claimed that he knew Wassan Singh, the new account holder. The witness has been cleared and let off a he was found innocent, the officers added.
The officers said Hardial Singh, Saini confessed that it was his, maiden attempt that failed, He fold the police that. He was extorting money on regular basis, and had transferred the money from one account to another in three different districts, withdrawing its and when required.
The officers appealed to the people not to consider genuine all such letters received by them.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 29, 1991
