About 450 acres of land, declared surplus in 1972, following the ceiling imposed on former landlord Major Harinder Singh, was scandalously allotted to fictitious names and even to his relatives, allegedly in the connivance with the revenue officials.

The matter came to light when the data was being procured to find out how much land has been allotted to the Scheduled Castes and poor from the government’s surplus land pool. Most of the allotments were made in 1980s and 1990s. The actual claimants have been running from pillar to post for their rights, while influential people, living abroad and outside the state, got the land in violations of the norms.

A preliminary inquiry was conducted by Ajnala SDM TS Sandhu, who submitted his initial probe report to Amritsar Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu last week, highlighting discrepancies in the land allotment. He has also submitted government records, showing fictitious names that were given the land, and a number of fake transactions made in the past about two decades.

Though the SDM has tried to blow the lid off the scandal, he has also been accused of shoddy investigations.

“While the SDM has been able to bring some facts on the record, he did not try to go deep to dig out the truth. He could have summoned at least some of the people owning the land to his court and recorded their statements. And the truth about their being real or fictitious would have to the light. The inquiry is just an eyewash,” said an insider.

Two brothers, who bought 12 acres from a person who had got the land unlawfully allotted to himself, have now found that the registration of the property was fake.

“There are dozens of persons who were sold the land by fake owners. The registration was carried out while the actual owners were abroad and their signatures and even thumb impressions were forged,” said the beleaguered brothers.

They said the anomalies should be corrected by the government and land be given to genuine claimants. Many of the claimants have died waiting for the land.

Some of the persons to whom land has been allotted though they are not tilling it include Harbhagwant Singh, whose father Vasudev Singh was a manager with Major Harinder. Harbhagwant Singh was allotted 10 acres on July 4, 1983, and investigations revealed that he has been staying in Germany ever since 1977 and had later sold the land in violation of the rules.

There are many instances where kin got the allotted land against the Ceiling Act.

SDM Sandhu said he had submitted the preliminary investigation report, pointing out anomalies in the allotment of land. “I will be able to make final comments only after the inquiry is completed,” he said.

Rubbishing the allegations that he had not been able to dig out the truth, the SDM said all records were summoned and he had sensed something fishy in them.

DC KS Pannu said he has received the report, but was yet to go through it.