By IANS,
Mohali: Punjab Police Tuesday arrested Vikramjit Singh Chimni, a high profile head of four government councils, on charges of corruption, cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.
The four councils were set up to promote citrus fruit cultivation, value added horticulture, organic farming and viticulture in the state.
“We have arrested Chimni. He misused his authority and passed bills without verification. He also misused public money through several fake firms. We had submitted our inquiry report to the state government and following that an FIR (first information report) was registered. This is a scam worth several crores of rupees,” a police official said Tuesday.
The councils were proposed to take farmers’ land on lease and develop orchards. The aim was to motivate farmers to take to citrus fruit cultivation.
Besides Chimni, police had earlier booked nine other officers of the councils and a fake Delhi-based company, Balaji Traders, after the scam came to light a few months ago.
They were arrested in Mohali Feb 3 by the Punjab Police crime wing.
The four bodies were the council for citrus and agri juicing, council for value added horticulture, organic farming council of Punjab, and viticulture council of Punjab.
They were promoted by the Punjab government’s agriculture department and were registered under the Societies Registration Act.