Three chargesheeted for duping farmers in Jammu

Jammu, Feb 10 (PTI) Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Saturday filed a charge sheet here against three people, including a bank employee, for allegedly cheating farmers after promising handsome profit for their harvest, an official said.

The 604-page charge sheet was filed against two brothers — Sonu Gupta and Shashi Gupta (who is an employee of a bank) of R S Pura — and their neighbour Gourav Gupta in a local court, a spokesperson of the crime branch said.

He said the case against the accused was filed in 2019 following a complaint lodged by Tirath Singh of Gadi Garh, claiming that a number of farmers were cheated of their harvest and hard-earned money.

Singh alleged that the trio, running different firms, collected the bulk of paddy and wheat from local farmers promising them a handsome profit but did not even pay the actual cost, thus swindling the money worth crores of rupees, the spokesperson said.

Initially, the case was registered at R S Pura Police Station and later transferred to the crime branch in Jammu for a detailed investigation, the official said, adding that during the investigation it was found that the accused were running three firms even as Shashi was an employee of J-K bank and had collected harvest from the farmers.

They also accepted cash deposits from the farmers on the pretext of high interest and finally cheated them, the spokesperson said.