Jet Airways official arrested for grabbing land in Ghaziabad

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A senior Jet Airways official was arrested early on Sunday by the Uttar Pradesh Police from the national capital on charges of illegally grabbling municipal land in Ghaziabad.

Avneet Singh Bedi, a retired Colonel and now Vice President of security affairs at Jet Airways, was taken into custody from his Panchsheel Park residence in south Delhi, Ghaziabad Superintendent of Police Akash Tomar said.

The police action came after a case of land grabbing was registered against Bedi at the Sahibabad police station on June 21 by Joint Municipal Commissioner Arun Kumar Gupta of the Municipal Corporation of Ghaziabad.

According to the police, the FIR states that Bedi along with four members of his own family - Vimla Bedi, Manohar Bedi, Digvijay and Guneet Singh - and six other accomplices grabbed a total of 5,690 square metres of municipal land in Ghaziabad.

They are accused of building a company on the grabbed land. The value of the land was put at over Rs 70 crore.

The other accomplices were identified as Sunil Kumar, Subhash, Amar Singh, Shahna Waz, Khem Chand and Jai Raj. They had put up shops on the land close to the Delhi border.

According to the FIR, when a revenue clerk demanded to see their property papers, they expressed their inability to show him the documents.

During verification, the land was found recorded in the name of the Municipal Corporation of Ghaziabad.

Ghaziabad Municipal Commissioner C.P. Singh said: "All grabbed land has to be evacuated. We have launched a drive."

Said police officer Tomar: "The FIR has been registered under sections 447 and 448 of IPC. It is the first breakthrough in the case. The other 10 accused persons are to be arrested soon."

Jet declined to comment on the arrest of its official who is mostly based in Mumbai.

A company official said: "The airline does not comment on personal matters of our executives and employees."