Ludhiana: FIR against Sarabha Nagar school for ‘ ₹2,400-crore fraud’
New Higher Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar, has been accused of running commercial activities on the land allotted by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust at low rate for running a school
The division number 5 police have booked the management of New Higher Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar, for “cheating” and illegally running commercial activity on the land which was allotted by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) to the management for the school. The deputy commissioner office, while citing a complaint, mentioned a ₹2,400-crore fraud referring to the commercial activities on the land and had forwarded the same to the LIT which has got the police case registered now.
According to the LIT’s complaint, on one pocket of the 4.71 acre land at the prime location, a playway school (Orchid Junior International School) is being run. Pocket B has building of New Senior Secondary School, Pocket D has Shri Ram Universal School, Pocket E has Kangaroo Playway School, Pocket F has staff quarters and a new building is being constructed in Pocket G. On the main road, Madia Group has installed a hoarding that reads ‘Business with Difference’. The school management committee has been receiving hefty rent from the playway schools, it has been alleged.
According to the FIR, when the LIT wrote a letter to the management committee seeking a reply on the violations, the committee approached the court on August 20, 2022, seeking a stay. The court has not issued any stay order to the committee. The next hearing will be on January 28.
The Punjab Vidhan Sabha Committee for Local Bodies had also taken notice of the violations in a meeting held on November 5, 2024 and recommended stern action. The LIT had on April 2, 2019 proposed an agenda for the cancellation of the land allotment for the New Higher Secondary School management but as the model code of conduct was imposed due to Lok Sabha elections in 2019, no meeting was held to pass the agenda.
Inspector Balwant Singh, station house officer (SHO) at the division number 5, said the LIT chairman had filed a complaint on January 7. An FIR under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC has been registered against the management of New Higher Secondary School, Sarabha Nagar.
The LIT chairman, in his statement, mentioned that 4.71 acres were allotted to New Higher Secondary School, Civil Lines, to run another school in Sarabha Nagar under Kartar Singh Sarabha Nagar Scheme in 1966-1967 for ₹94,200 under special reduced price. According to the clause, the land would not be used for any other activity.
A group of school alumni is struggling to save the school. The New High School Alumni Association had recently roped in Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Sanjeev Arora. Association president Rajesh Garg stated that all commercial activities should be stopped from the land and the school should be restored.
MP Sanjiv Arora said he wrote to the DC on August 1, 2024 that it had been brought to his attention by the New High School Alumni Association, supported by Rakesh Bharti Mittal (of Airtel group) and Onkar Singh Pahwa (Avon Cycles group) that the New High School’s (Civil Lines and Sarabha Nagar) reputation and operational integrity had significantly declined under the current management committee.
Onkar Singh Pahwa and New High School Alumni Association president Rajesh Garg welcomed registration of an FIR. They said they only wanted the school’s old glory to be restored and it should start functioning in a smooth and better manner. They said the school alumni were ready to extend their cooperation to the government and the administration in the matter.
Deep-rooted conspiracy?
The FIR mentioned that land registration was done in the name of New Higher Secondary School on March 21, 1991. A copy of the deed was kept in the LIT record. When scanned, it was found that three lines from the clauses were erased with a pen. Six other lines on another page of the deed were erased in a similar way. Had it been erased by the LIT, it would have carried the signature of the chairman and the noting should have been mentioned in the record, proving that the management committee got the document tampered with, the FIR mentioned.
The FIR also reads that Sunil Kumar Dutt had on May 26, 2018 submitted an affidavit claiming himself to be the land allottee and sought a supplementary registration of the land in his name, however he was not allottee according to the record. Later, his son Sunny Kumar had on September 14, 2020 claimed himself as the school trust president and moved an application for the supplementary registry in the favour of the school.