Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Wednesday arrested three persons including two former Army personnel for impersonating as Vigilance officials and taking a cheques of Rs 25 lakhs from a resident of Bhaini Salu village in Ludhiana district.

The arrested accused persons have been identified as Manjeet Singh, resident of village Bhaini Salu, Paramjeet Singh of village Mehlon (Ludhiana) and Parminder Singh, resident of Akash Colony, Hoshiarpur.

Manjeet Singh and Parminder Singh are ex-Army personnel. Parminder Singh is in-charge of World Human Rights Corporation of Punjab.

Revealing details, an official spokesperson of the VB said that Palwinder Singh, resident of village Bhaini Salu, lodged a complaint that he had sold 18 acres of his ancestral land a few months ago.

Days after that, he received a Government notice regarding selling a Panchayat land, following which, three unknown persons came to his house on August 12 and introduced themselves as officials from the Vigilance Department at Sector-17, Chandigarh.

The complainant alleged that they demanded Rs 50 lakh from him to sort out the matter of selling Panchayat land as they cited that the inquiry is pending at Chandigarh office and a case will be registered against him in this regard.

In fear, the complainant agreed to pay Rs 25 lakh and the accused persons convinced him to sign two cheques — Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh — with a guarantee to return them back once receiving the amount of Rs 25 lakh in cash.

One of the accused persons also took Rs 27000 from Palwinder Singh’s pocket and went away after getting his phone number.

“Thereafter, the complainant has been receiving threat calls on WhatsApp for registration of a criminal case against him in case the former fails to give promised Rs 25 lakh cash,” he said.

The spokesperson said following the complaint, under Sections 7, 7-A of Prevention of Corruption Act and 384,120-B of IPC has been registered against Manjeet Singh of village Bhaini Salu and three unknown persons at Police Station VB, Ludhiana Range.

Accused Manjeet Singh and Paramjeet Singh of village Mehlon were arrested on Monday, and now they both are on police remand till 31 August.

Parminder Singh, a resident of Akash Colony Hoshiarpur, was also arrested on Tuesday. The VB has also nominated four more persons in the case and a manhunt has been launched to arrest the remaining accused.

Accused Manjeet Singh and Paramjit Singh had made recee of the house of the complainant and Parminder Singh is one of those three accused persons who went to the house of complainant on August 12, the spokesperson said.