Jathedar Tota Singh seeks HC nod to go abroad

Punjab agriculture minister Jathedar Tota Singh on Tuesday approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, seeking permission to go abroad.

Punjab agriculture minister Jathedar Tota Singh on Tuesday approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, seeking permission to go abroad.

The minister stated that he wanted to visit England, Canada and the US from July 1 to 25 on an official tour.

Hearing the petition, the vacation bench of justice K Kannan on Tuesday issued a notice to the state government on the minister's petition for June 19.

Jathedar Tota Singh was convicted by an SAS Nagar special judge in May 2012 and sentenced to undergo one-year rigorous imprisonment in a case registered by the Punjab vigilance bureau in 2002.

The court had found Jathedar Tota Singh guilty of misusing his official vehicle during his tenure as the education minister in the 1997-2002 Akali-BJP government. He later got relief from the high court. His sentence was suspended, pending decision on his appeal, and he was granted bail by the HC. In October 2014 also, the minister had undertaken a tour of England, Canada and the US.