The Ghaziabad Police on Sunday arrested a top Jet Airways official in connection with a land grabbing case, IANS reported. Colonel Avneet Singh Bedi, the airline’s vice president of security, had allegedly encroached on 945 sqm of land belonging to a civic body in Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh, NDTV reported.
Bedi, who is believed to have illegally sold portions of the plot, was arrested at 12.35 am on Sunday from his Panchsheel Park residence in New Delhi. A case was registered against him after the Municipal Corporation of Ghaziabad had filed a complaint on June 21.
Ten others, including four from Bedi’s family, have also been named in the FIR filed by the police in the case. None of the accused could produce any papers related to ownership of this plot, the FIR said.
However, the family claimed it was a conspiracy. Bedi’s brother-in-law RS Chopra said the land belongs to Colonel Bedi’s mother and was bought in 1959. “The land is in the name of his 84-year-old mother. The electricity bill is also in the name of his mother.” He claimed he had all the documents and would show them in court.
Officials of the Sahihabad Nagar Nigam said that when the land was examined on May 30, 954 sqm of the 5,690 sqm was found encroached upon. The civic body’s complaint said Bedi had sold portions from this encroached land to six other individuals, and he had retained around 532 sqm of it for himself, which had been given out on rent to a transport company.
A Jet Airways spokesperson refused to comment on the matter, saying, “The airline does not comment on personal matters of our executives.”
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