Fearing threat to their family members’ lives, farmers, mostly Scheduled Caste, said they were allotted land in chunks but never given ownership rights despite their protests for the past two decades.

The Indian Express had earlier highlighted the illegal occupation of agriculture land by the rich and powerful. The farmers were never given the right to cultivate the land due to the alleged nexus of revenue officials and the influential persons. Alleging that the ongoing probe into the scandal by the Ajnala SDM was going on at a snail’s pace, they said a case should be registered against the violators of law.

“We are fighting for justice for the past over a decade. We are poor and do not have the means to fight the influential,” said Mohan Singh, whose father Sundar Singh was allotted about 20 kanals of land in 1982, but is still fighting for its possession.

“The Land Ceiling Act has been run over,” said Charan Singh, another farmer.

The land originally belonged to landlord Major Harinder Singh, who adopted his nephew Gurpal Singh as he had only daughters. Gurpal Singh is married to Jai Kaur, daughter of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and lives in Delhi.

During the enforcement of the Land Ceiling Act in 1972, the land was declared surplus by the government and subsequently distributed among the poor. “But the possession was never given to us and the orders remain on papers only,” said Yusuf, a farmer. Gurpal, son-in-law of Capt Amarinder, is among those whose transactions relating to the distribution and sale of land to his family members are being probed.

The land was reportedly sold to the family members of Gurpal and even sold further in violation of norms. The preliminary probe had thrown light on the scandalous transactions, including selling of the land to fictitious persons. Most of the allotments were done in 1980 and 1990s.

Amritsar Deputy Commissioner KS Pannu admitted that the preliminary inquiry conducted by former SDM Ajnala TS Sandhu had highlighted various discrepancies. “Farmers have met me and I have told them that a thorough probe was on. Old records needed to be acquisitioned and verified, and this is a time-consuming process. The guilty will not be spared,” said Pannu, adding that a case would be registered after the probe was over.