Dismissed GMADA chief engineer gets 7-year jail for forging birth certificate

The additional district and sessions court of Mohali sentenced the dismissed Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) chief engineer Surinderpal Singh alias Pehalwan, along with Labh Singh, former assistant secretary of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), to seven years of rigorous imprisonment on charges of forging a birth certificate.

Pehelwan is already facing a corruption case and was convicted on Friday by the additional district and sessions judge Parminder Singh Grewal for forging his birthdate in connivance with PSEB assistant secretary Labh Singh and PSEB superintendent KK Bhandari, reducing the age by four years from 1967 to 1971 in service records. Bhandari passed away during the course of the trial.

Pehelwan is also the prime accused in the multi-crore graft case and was arrested by the vigilance bureau in June 2017. Subsequently, VB registered another case against Pehalwan for allegedly forging his birth date in the service record.

On July 3, 2017, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) registered a case against Pehelwan, who is considered close to the Badal family, for submitting a forged birth certificate to obtain a government job. The investigation revealed discrepancies between the date of birth mentioned in his service book (December 11, 1971) and the actual date of birth, as per school records (December 11, 1967).

Pehelwan had completed his senior secondary examination in the year 1985-86 and a three-year diploma in civil engineering (1986-89). The records from technical institutions indicated his date of birth as December 11, 1967.

The VB chargesheet disclosed that Pehelwan, in collaboration with officials of PSEB and Punjab Mandi Board, manipulated his date of birth as December 11, 1971, instead of the correct date.

Based on the investigation, the VB registered a case against Pehelwan and officials of PSEB and the Punjab Mandi Board. Pehelwan, who joined as a junior engineer in Punjab Mandi Board in 1993, had been officiating as chief engineer with GMADA, Mohali, since 2016. He was later repatriated to the Mandi Board.

During his tenure, more than 200 development works amounting to ₹1,030 crore were allotted to various contractors, including ₹230 crore to Ek Onkar builders, in which he had stakes.

Currently, in jail, Pehelwan is already facing trial for allegedly using bogus firms and family members’ bank accounts’ to ‘adjust bribe money.’ He was indirectly running four firms in the name of his wife and mother to manage ill-gotten funds and had indirect stakes in a construction firm, Ek Onkar Builders.

According to the VB, Pehelwan was recruited as a junior engineer in the Punjab Mandi Board on January 28, 1993.