‘Ghost’ allottee sells off government property in Ludhiana.

Ludhiana: The Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (Glada) is tightening its locks after a sophisticated forgery ring managed to sell off a govt-owned house in broad daylight.By impersonating a former owner and fabricating a chain of power-of-attorney documents, the fraudsters successfully bypassed official scrutiny for over three years. The discovery of "missing" note sheets has sparked a wider probe into how deep the corruption — and the paperwork — actually goes.Glada alerted investigators after discovering that a house in Dugri Phase-3 — allotted originally in 1998 but reclaimed by the state in 2002 — had been transferred fraudulently into private hands. The complaint suggests that an impostor posing as the original allottee successfully obtained a conveyance deed in 2021, initiating a complex chain of transactions.The deception involved a series of power-of-attorney transfers between multiple individuals, eventually culminating in the property's sale to a third party in April 2024. The scheme only unraveled when the buyer applied for a formal ownership transfer, triggering a deep audit of the property's file.Glada officials report that the file was riddled with "crude manipulations". Key evidence includes fake receipts for payments totalling more than Rs 4 lakh that never reached govt accounts, and "no-due certificates" with dispatch numbers that do not exist in official registers. Investigators also found several note sheets missing from the original file, suggesting internal records were tampered with to facilitate the heist.Sarabha Nagar police have registered a case against unidentified suspects for cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy. The investigating officer, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Rajpal Singh, has stated that the probe will focus on how the forged paperwork successfully bypassed Glada's internal checks to allow a registered sale deed.