—A Vancouver based accountant is alleging he was tortured by cops in Punjab who were in cahoots with a ‘land-mafia’ group out to take over his property. Ranjit Singh, 50, who hails from Mujrewal village in Punjab said he returned to his homeland [and] decided to stay in the country to facilitate his son’s studies. He claims he was allegedly stripped and tortured at the Bhogpur police station in August last year.
“As my son had got an admission in medical college, the family decided to stay in India, till his studies were complete. I told Gursharan Singh, son of my sister-in-law, that I would myself be looking after my land measuring about 25 acres,” he told reporters and senior police officials, according to Indian media. Gursharan apparently was eyeing the land and was not happy to yield control over the land.
“Gursharan, along with two others connived with Bhogpur police station sub-inspector Harbans Singh to force me to go back to Canada,” he said. “As part of the plan, the Sub-Inspector I and three other policemen whisked me away into a police station where I was stripped and tortured. ”
The policemen threatened me with dire consequences, if I did not return to Canada with my family, so that Gursharan Singh can take possession of the land,” he said, according to media reports.
Ranjit said his complaints—including one to the Punjab State Human Rights Commission—have yielded no action into the matter. After listening to Ranjit Singh, the top Punjab cop in charge of Non-Resident Indian (NRI) affairs, Gurpreet Deo, ordered a thorough investigation
In recent years, the price of property in Punjab has soared to dizzying new levels, providing new incentives for NRIs to reclaim their land. NRIs, in particular, are returning to their birthplace to reclaim their property, which has often quadrupled in worth in the past five to 10 years, analysts said.
Every year, hundreds of land claims are filed by NRIs with police departments throughout India. From 2007 to June 2008, just in Ludhiana district in the state of Punjab, 31 complaints were filed by NRIs, mostly from Canada and the U.S. And, as most cases takes years to be resolved, experts speculate that there are thousands of open files throughout the state, from which the majority of Canada’s Indo-Canadians originate.
