US NRI
brother's property sold after power of attorney
NRI brothers fighting
to get their property back- worth nearly Rs. 300 crore
Amritsar, June 18, 2008
Sohan Lal
US based NRI family (Yashdev Inder Singh, Jagdev
Inder Singh and Jaidev Inder Singh), filed a complaint with district
officials against tehsildar Rajesh Sharma for conniving to sell
nearly 11 acres of their prime land worth nearly Rs. 300 crore
(Rs.3 billion) in the market. NRI brothers alleged that they had
handed over the general power of attorney to G S Khara and Sudesh
Khanna of Panchkula and some blank signed papers to follow-up
the cases but committed fraud to sell their property.
On June 14, the government suspended tehsildar Rajesh
Sharma under a probe by deputy commissioner Kahan Singh Pannu
indicted tehsildar Rajesh Sharma. The police registered a case
of forgery against Sharma following a complaint from the district
revenue officer.
Last year, Sharma was suspended when he was blamed
to accepted a bribe to prepare a fake power of attorney of the
official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
Following a TV channel ex poser, he was removed from the post
and later on reinstated by the ruling Akali Dal and BJP government
in the state.
When we discuss this case with Attorney, Satinder
Singh in Chandigarh, he said:
When you give them power of attorney, you have given
them a license to rob you. After signing over to them power of
attorney, you have basically said to them, "Treat me as if
I were mentally incompetent and handle my finances as you see
fit."
A Power of Attorney is a legal instrument that is
used to delegate legal authority to another. The person who signs(executes)a
Power of Attorney is called the Principal. The power of Attorney
gives legal authority to another person(called an Agent or Attorney-in-Fact)
to make property, financial and other legal decisions for the
Principal. A "Nondurable" Power of Attorney enables
a Principal to decide in advance who will make important financial
and business decisions in the future.