Tota Singh case: HC summons trial court record

The Punjab and Haryana high court has summoned the complete record of the trial court in a case in which former Punjab agriculture minister Tota Singh was alleged to have misused his official vehicle.

The Punjab and Haryana high court has summoned the complete record of the trial court in a case in which former Punjab agriculture minister Tota Singh was alleged to have misused his official vehicle. He had moved the high court against his conviction and one-year imprisonment pronounced by the additional district and session court, Mohali, on May 5.

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The case, which came up for hearing before the bench headed by justice KC Puri on Monday, was adjourned for January 8 for final arguments.

The Mohali local court had found Tota Singh guilty of misusing an official vehicle of the Punjab School Education Board during his stint as the education minister in the 1997-2002 Akali-BJP government, causing a huge loss to the board, and had handed him one-year prison sentence. However, the court acquitted him of more serious charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Later, the high court had on May 17 confirmed his bail while admitting his case for hearing with regular cases as per its turn. In his petition, Tota Singh, had mentioned that the trial court had given the judgment on the basis of an "unfair and tainted investigation".