E-Paper
Punjab CM’s OSD, co-accused skip CBI questioning; claim no summons received
Rajbir Ghuman fails to appear before central agency in Chandigarh cash-for-favours probe as state pushes Supreme Court for urgent stay on high court-ordered investigation.
Prefer HTon Google
Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s officer on special duty (OSD), Rajbir Ghuman, and five co-accused failed to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at its Chandigarh office on Wednesday.
Official sources in the chief minister’s office (CMO) said that Ghuman did not appear because he was not formally served the summons. However, sources indicated the team opted to hold off on appearing while awaiting an urgent Supreme Court hearing on the state government’s plea challenging the probe.
The central agency registered a 251-page first information report (FIR) around midnight on October 5, naming Ghuman along with alleged middleman Nitin Gohal, his brother Jitin Gohal (alias Raja), Romi Raja Mahajan, Bir Devinder, and RS Nagra. Gohal and Nagra are long-time associates of Ghuman, while Bir Devinder is an AAP youth wing functionary from Sangrur.
The summons followed raids conducted on Tuesday at eight locations across Punjab. The searched premises included Ghuman’s official residence in Sector 2, Chandigarh, used as a camp office, and his ancestral home at Gharachon in Sangrur district. CBI officers seized electronic devices, including laptops and mobile phones, along with financial and administrative documents.
The investigation stems from a Punjab and Haryana high court order directing the CBI to probe corruption allegations outlined in three letters sent by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to Punjab director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav. The high court pulled up the police for failing to act on ED inputs detailing 61 counts of alleged wrongdoing between 2023 and 2026, noting that the material prima facie pointed to the involvement of high public officials. Simultaneously, the Punjab government filed an urgent special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the high court order, seeking an immediate stay on the CBI proceedings. A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, was approached to consider mentioning the petition.
In a related development, Sangrur police detained two Gharachon village residents and reportedly suspended station house officer (SHO) Yashpal Sharma for negligence after villagers and local opposition workers showered the CBI team with flower petals and distributed sweets during the raid at Ghuman’s residence.
According to the CBI FIR, the accused ran an organised network that manipulated IAS and IPS postings, departmental proceedings, policy framing, administrative approvals, tenders, licensing, arms licences, and land-use conversions in exchange for bribes.
The investigating agency also alleged that unreleased government notifications and internal draft policies were leaked to private beneficiaries. The ED’s initial findings revealed that Nitin Gohal operated as an intermediary for Ghuman, coordinating the bribery network—allegations that surfaced during an ongoing money-laundering investigation into Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) land allotments.
Reacting to the raids, Mann accused the BJP of using central agencies like the CBI and ED to target his government ahead of the state elections. The CBI clarified that it had searched a residence used by the OSD, not the chief minister’s secretariat.
