By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 19 Oct: In a development that could hamper the ongoing investigation by the SIT into the fake registry scam of Dehradun, one of the chief accused, Kunwar Pal Singh alias KP Singh, has died under mysterious circumstances in Saharanpur. Sources in the Police admitted that the department has been informed this morning by Saharanpur Police of the sudden death of KP Singh in Saharanpur prison. Now, whether the death is due to natural reasons like illness or there is some other reason is yet to be ascertained. So far, the Police officials concerned have chosen not to speak about it. The questions arise due to the circumstances in which he has died and also due to the fact that this fake registry case allegedly involves many white collared high profile people.
KP Singh is believed to be involved in a large number of scams related to fake sale deeds by getting the original documents kept in the registry offices replaced with forged documents, and then selling the land to others without the knowledge of original land owners. At present the case is still being investigated and with the progress in investigation, many new cases are being detected on a regular basis. Many people are coming with complaints before the government and the team led by retired IAS officer Surendra Singh Rawat, about forgery in respect of the property owned by them. Each such complaint is currently being investigated and it has been seen that a large scale fraud in the registry office was going on since long. While some junior level officers and some lawyers have been arrested including the high profile Kamal Virmani, no senior officer of the revenue department like SDM, or the Register’s Office have been investigated so far.
It may be recalled that KP Singh, one of the main accused in the infamous multi-crore registry fraud, had been lodged in Saharanpur jail following his arrest. His arrest took place after the Doon Bar Association had pressed for his arrest and had accused the Police of not taking any action against him. Though, Singh had been lodged in Saharanpur jail as he belonged to Saharanpur, he was brought a few times to Doon for hearing on a B-Warrant. His arrest had also brought to light several other forged sale deeds of which the Police was not aware of earlier. He was brought to Dehradun by the Doon Police on 8 September too. Saharanpur jail officials are still refraining from saying anything more on the death of KP Singh.
According to police sources, the jail administration confirmed the death of KP Singh this morning. Unofficially it has been claimed that his health suddenly deteriorated today morning and following a complaint by him regarding feeling unwell, he was sent to District Hospital SBD Saharanpur, where he died. Though, officially nothing has been confirmed, unofficially, it is being claimed that he died due to cardiac arrest. However, the matter still remains suspicious.
One of the reasons, behind suspicion regarding the death of KP Singh is the fact three other accused in the case have also died so far. Before this, three binders had died in the last four years. Two allegedly died because of drinking while one had died in an accident. Surprisingly, no postmortem was conducted in any of the death case.
So far 17 people have been arrested in this case. KP Singh was also one of them. Recently, when Dehradun Police started searching for KP Singh, he dramatically jumped bail in an old case and went to jail. A case was also registered against KP in Saharanpur. Whereas he was named in two cases in Dehradun.
KP Singh‘s death comes as a big blow to the investigation of registry fraud. Because, in all the cases of registry fraud that have come to light till now, mostly the names of KP Singh and advocate Kamal Virmani have come to light. Singh has been found to be an important link between all the actors of the registry fraud and the accused advocate Virmani. On 8 September, when Doon police brought KP Singh from Saharanpur jail to Doon on B-warrant, CJM Laxman Singh‘s court had approved his four-day police remand. During this time, the police had collected all the evidence from him regarding registry fraud. Singh had allegedly played a key and leading role in getting the records at the Registrar Office tampered with. Some of the old records were replaced with forged documents in Saharanpur itself and the rest were replaced in Dehradun.
Sources also claim that there could be some possible involvement of many high profile persons including politicians, bureaucrats and the Police officers in large scale land frauds in Doon. Dehradun, Haridwar have emerged as a hub of land frauds and this continues.