Ludhiana: After sitting over cases of proclaimed offenders (POs) for years, the NRI police has finally started expediting the process of attachment of their properties in the district. The NRI police has attached the properties of two NRIs who were declared POs in various cases, while three cases are pending with the judge, and it is yet to complete formalities in 23 cases before submitting a request to the judiciary for seizing their properties.
A document at NRI police station in Ludhiana accessed by 'TOI reveals that of the 28 POs registered with the police station, a majority of them are from Ludhiana city, whereas some of them are from Hoshiarpur, Phillaur in Jalandhar, Kurukshetra (Haryana), and Baga Purana in Moga. The record suggests that a majority of those declared POs were booked in cases between 2012 and 2013.
Confirming that the the NRI police were yet to submit a request to the judiciary for seizing the property in a majority of PO cases, station house officer (SHO) NRI police station, Randhir Singh, said: "The properties of two POs -- Gurbakshish Singh of Bhikki Khatra in Payal (presently in Canada), declared PO in a fraud case on January 14, and Daljeet Kaur (for domestic cruelty) have already been attached. We have also submitted a request to the court for attachment of property of three more POs, including Navdeep Singh and Paramjeet Kaur of Australia, originally from Urban Estate Dugri (declared POs on April 15 last year), and facing charges under sections 406 and 498A of the IPC. "We have sent the rest of the cases for identification of land to revenue officials. While some of them are with the SDM, some are in the DC's office. Once we get the property records from revenue officials, we will send the request to the court for attachment of properties in each case."
The NRI police said that a majority of the cases in which the accused have been declared proclaimed offenders are those of property and marital disputes, whereas some are those of forgery and fraud. "In a majority of the cases, we are trying to get the properties attached, but in some cases, POs don't have land or house registered after them, so it is not possible to do that," said deputy superintendent of police (NRI) Rattan Singh Brar. Section 83 of the code of criminal procedure 1973, warrants the attachment of property of the person absconding.
MODUS OPERANDI List of POs at the NRI police station suggests that they are in countries like USA, Italy, UK, and Canada.
Procedure adopted: Once an accused in a case is declared a PO by court, the NRI police gets an LOC (lookout notice)issued against him from the local court. After that, the name of POs is forwarded by the NRI police to ADGP Security, which forwards the same to respective embassies. Also, the NRI police can ask the deputy commissioner's office to give details of POs and later produce the same before a court for confiscating their property (if any).