THE Ghaziabad police in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday arrested Col. (retd) Avneet Singh Bedi, said to be security head of Jet Airways for allegedly grabbing government land.
The arrest came following an FIR lodged by the Ghaziabad municipal corporation against alleged land grabbers.
The police on Sunday said that Bedi had allegedly grabbed land under Sahibabad police station area and failed to show relevant documents. “He was arrested from his Panchsheel Park residence in New Delhi around 12.35am. The land is worth crores of rupees and allegedly encroached by Bedi. He has been formally arrested and is being questioned,” said Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city).
The official website of Jet Airways mentions Bedi as “Vice President – Security”. He has a long corporate and military experience of over 40 years and his last assignment before Jet Airways was senior vice president, Walmart India Limited.
The airline refused to comment on the issue saying, “The airline does not comment on matters that are entirely personal in nature.” Municipal corporation officials had lodged an FIR on June 21 at Sahibabad police station, naming Bedi, his relatives and six other people. Before lodging the FIR, the corporation took up a physical inspection of the encroached land at Chikambarpur near the Delhi border on May 30 and found that 532 square metres of land, allegedly grabbed by Bedi and his relatives, was provided on rent to a logistics company. According to the FIR, they were also using other 268 sq m land as a road.
The officials have been taking up physical inspections and also lodging FIRs against land grabbers and encroachers on the directions of the UP state government. The ‘anti land mafia’ task force was constituted by the Yogi Adiyanath government after it assumed power. It was one of the BJP’s main poll promises. The government has also instructed the police to book land mafias under the provisions of the Gangster Act.
Ghaziabad district officials have identified nearly 317 hectares of government land which have been illegally occupied and encroached. These lands are spread across different tehsils, municipal corporation, nagar palikas. Some of the land also belongs to agencies like Ghaziabad development authority (GDA), Avas Vikas Parishad and UP state industrial development corporation.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times