Mohali, June 30 -- Even as police continue their search for Universal Educational Society (UES) president Gurpreet Singh in the alleged Ballopur panchayat land mortgage case, a local court has sought the appearance of Punjab National Bank (PNB) officials with original mortgage records. Dera Bassi SHO Sumit Mour confirmed that Gurpreet Singh, one of the four accused named in the FIR, is absconding. "He has not joined the investigation and efforts are on to arrest him," he said. The FIR was registered following an inquiry by the Mohali district development and panchayat officer (DDPO), which found that nearly 68 bighas and 14 biswas of shamlat land in Ballopur village, leased to UES in 2009 for educational purposes for 33 years, was allegedly mortgaged to obtain a Rs.38-crore loan from Punjab National Bank. The inquiry concluded that a clause permitting loans against the leased land had been "fraudulently" inserted into the lease deed, contrary to the Punjab government's original sanction, allowing the common village land to be used as collateral. The loan account was later declared a non-performing asset, prompting recovery proceedings before the Debt Recovery Tribunal. The controversy has also spilled onto the ground. After the rural development and panchayat department recently erected a signboard at the site declaring the property as Ballopur village shamlat land, the institute allegedly installed a large advertisement board reading "Admissions Open" immediately in front of it, obscuring the government board from public view. The move has drawn criticism from villagers, who termed it an attempt to conceal the government's ownership claim over the land. Meanwhile, Gurpreet Singh's anticipatory bail plea (applied on June 22) came up before additional sessions judge-cum-judicial magistrate Prashant Verma, who partly heard arguments on June 25. During the hearing, the prosecution highlighted inconsistencies between the financial commissioner's sanction order and the lease deed and questioned the subsequent alteration in mortgage records to reflect only leasehold rights. Observing that the issue required further scrutiny, the judge directed the PNB sanctioning authority or bank manager responsible for the change to appear before the court with the complete mortgage records. The matter is now listed for further hearing on June 30. DDPO Paramveer Kaur was also present in court. Police have already booked Gurpreet Singh, former Ballopur sarpanch Chhoti Devi and two former panchayat members under various charges, including cheating, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal conspiracy. While the remaining accused have joined the investigation, Gurpreet Singh continues to evade arrest. A few days ago, Gurpreet Singh had rubbished the reports about wrongdoing. Sections 318(4) (cheating), 336(2,3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 340(2) (forged document or electronic record) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita were slapped against the accused in the FIR registered on June 17....