‘People stay in PGs after committing crime… our family is worst sufferer’

Amarjeet Singh, father of advocate Amarpreet Singh, at his residence in Mohali. Sahil Walia

ON THE night of February 26, 2013, everything seemed to be normal for the family of Punjab and Haryana High Court lawyer Amarpreet Singh Sethi but suddenly at around 8 pm something happened which not only shattered Sethi’s family but also shook the city. Nine men who were living in a paying guest house in Sethi’s neighbourhood had murdered him. After investigation it was found that the accused, who all were sentenced for life on November 22, did not have any tenant verification done.

For eyewash, house owner Janak Raj, an employee of Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), was booked by the police who rented out his house to the assailants. The accused were staying in the PG and they fought with Amarpreet over a parking issue. When Amarpreet and his cousins confronted them, the assailants shot Amarpreet dead and left his two cousins seriously injured.

Even Sessions Judge Archna Puri pointed out in her judgment which she pronounced in Sethi murder case that the people in Tricity give their houses on rent without verification of their tenants. Four years have passed since the murder, the problem of illegal PGs which have become a safe haven for criminals is still the same and the authorities as usual turn a blind eye to it.

Amarpreet’s uncle Manjeet Singh Sethi, who is now Deputy Mayor, blames the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) for not taking any action against the illegal PG owners. He said that these PGs have become a menace for the city residents. “I can tell you many incidents when the people stayed in PGs after committing crime. We had fought against it but it is very sad that neither police nor GMADA took any concrete action against these people. Our family is the worst sufferer,” Manjeet said.

He alleged that most of the illegal paying guesthouses are owned by influential people and they do not bother the tenant verification which is itself a crime. Terming GMADA a mute spectator, he said that it was complete failure on part of GMADA.

Pavitter Pal Singh Virdi, chairman of Mohali Consumer Protection Federation, who fought a long battle against the illegal paying guest houses menace in the city also blamed the authorities concerned for the lack of action. He claimed that only 30 PGs are registered with GMADA while around 2,000 PGs are being run illegally by the people and most of the tenants living in these PGs did not have any police verification. “We met GMADA officials, police officials, held protests and sent hundreds of representations against the opening of illegal PGs because these places are becoming safe havens for criminals but to no avail,” Virdi said.

Not only Mohali, Kharar and Zirakpur, which are located in the peripheral area, are among the favourite places where criminals stay. In fact, both Zirakpur and Kharar have become a favourite place for the criminals. “In Kharar and Zirakpur there are hundreds of flats which are being rented out by the owners. The criminals take these flats on rent and stay there without any problem. In the past some gangsters were also arrested from Kharar who were living in the rented accommodations after committing crime at some other places,” Virdi said.

The claims of Sethi and Virdi do not seem to be wrong if one takes a look at the past incident when the district police arrested the dreaded gangsters from the rented accommodations. On November 12, a team of Special Operations Cell of Punjab Police arrested two persons from Housefed society located in Phase 10. The raid was conducted in search of absconding gangster Vicky Goundar but two persons who were arrested were found to be criminals wanted in the dacoity case in Amritsar. One person identified as Sukhpal Singh was also a member of Amritsar-based gang. The arrested gangsters, though, came to meet their nephew who is working as a hair transplant expert but their stay in the city raised questions about the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities concerned.

* The district police arrested three drug smugglers from Kharar on January 3, 2016, and recovered weapons which were allegedly smuggled from Pakistan. The arrested accused were identified as Sandeep Singh, Jatinder Singh and Gurjant Singh. Jatinder was wanted in a murder case which he committed in 2010. After the arrest, the police disclosed that Gurjant had taken a flat on rent in Sunny Enclave, Kharar, in September 2015 using a fake identity of Jalandhar-based resident Gagandeep Singh. He even got a passport issued in this name on his Kharar address and even travelled to Thailand, where he met Pakistani drugs and arms smuggler Imtiaz. Gurjant had also procured a driving licence and voter identity card under the fake name of Mangat Singh using his Sunny Enclave address while Sandeep had got a voter card and driving licence in the name of Manveer Singh.

* On March 10, 2015, the Mohali police also arrested Ranpreet Singh Rana and his accomplices who carried out one of the biggest robberies in the city. Rana, along with his gang, robbed an Indus Bank cash van when the cash was being taken to different ATMs on the morning of March 8, 2015. Rana’s accomplices were arrested from Kumbra village which is located in the heart of the city. The accused were living at a rented accommodation.

What do officers say?

Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal said that after taking over the charge last year, the first thing he did was to carry out checking in the PGs. He added that he had directed the CIA staff to visit the housing societies in Kharar, Zirakpur and Mohali and secretly check the vehicles parked by using the specialised applications to check the stolen vehicles.

Asked why the police do not take action against the owners of the houses where the tenants are living without verification, the SSP said that they are taking action and in the past they had also registered around 80 FIRs in the districts against the people who have rented their houses to the people without the police verification.