Chandigarh, April 1 -- The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has booked 16 officials - from divisional deputy director to block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) - for allegedly causing losses to the exchequer by failing to auction 350 acres of panchayat land in Hariau village, located in Patran block of Patiala, around a decade ago. Two of them - Vinod Kumar Gagat, deputy director of rural development, and Muktsar ADC (development) Surinder Singh Dhillon - have been arrested. Vigilance SSP Rajpal Singh said Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act have been slapped against the accused. Both were produced in a court that sent them to one-day remand for investigation. Notably, the FIR has been registered on the basis of a letter sent by rural development secretary after a three-member committee found that the officers posted in Patran block, including a DDPO at Patiala and the rural development's additional deputy commissioner (ADC), deliberately not auctioned the panchayat land for cultivation, causing loss of revenue from 2015 and 2018. The loss is said to be worth Rs.5 crore. It was done under the "patronage of the then politicians to benefit local residents who were having allegiance with the then ruling party", it has been alleged. Among those booked are Malwinder Singh, Paramjit Kaur, Sutantar Singh (all retired) who were BDPOs. The others were gram sewaks to panchyat secretary in the village."The matter was swept under the carpet by officers by simply issuing chargesheets. Recently, it came to the notice of senior officials who decided to take stern action for causing the loss," said an official. However, a person named in FIR said that this began after a senior officer used some unparliamentary language during a video conference against a former minister of AAP, who was recently booked and removed from the cabinet. "During a video conference, an officer made some indecent remarks while naming an arrested minister. This was brought to government's notice which swung into action and asked the department to act against those officials. Thus, the department on March 28 evening wrote to the VB on the issue, and the very next day an FIR was registered and two officers were arrested. The matter was already settled and chargesheets had been issued. But the government decided to register an FIR," he said. But officials said there was an administrative lapse as it was found that the auction was not done to benefit a few persons....