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Corruption case| No bail to ex-LIT chairman Raman Balasubramanium, 5 others
Apart from Raman Balasubramanium, LIT eecutive officer (EO) Kuljit Kaur, clerk Parveen Kumar and junior assistant Harmit Singh, who are in judicial custody in the case, had also applied for regular bail, but the court dismissed their applications too.
The court of additional sessions judge Ajit Atri on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Raman Balasubramanium, former chairperson of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), in a corruption case related to sale of plots.
Balasubramanium, through his counsel, had moved the application in the court on Wednesday.
Apart from him, LIT executive officer (EO) Kuljit Kaur, clerk Parveen Kumar and junior assistant Harmit Singh, who are in judicial custody in the case, had also applied for regular bail, but the court dismissed their applications too.
The EO’s husband, Bikram Singh, who earlier got an interim bail order in the case, and Gurnam Singh, a property dealer who was nominated in the case, also applied for anticipatory bail but the pleas were dismissed by the court.
The court had earlier issued arrest warrants against Balasubramanium, while his personal assistant Sandeep Sharma was arrested by the vigilance bureau on July 28.
The FIR lodged by the vigilance bureau had named Balasubramanium, his PA Sandeep Sharma, EO Kuljit Kaur, sales clerk Parveen Kumar, SDO Ankit Narang and junior assistant Gaganadeep Goyal.
Kaur and the clerk were arrested on July 14 on charges of accepting a bribe of ₹10,000 for re-allotment of a booth.
According to vigilance bureau officials, while investigating the bribe case, they came to know about the alleged corrupt practices adopted by the former chairman and other officials.
The vigilance bureau had found that the accused had allotted plot number 9-B in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, plot numbers 102, 103, 104, 105, 106-D in Rishi Nagar and plot number 366-B, 140 in Sarabha Nagar of Ludhiana, which were under the local displaced persons (LDP) and other schemes of the trust, to unauthorised persons after accepting bribes.
Balasubramanium was also facing allegations of encroaching upon a public park and using it to install generators and park his cars during his tenure as LIT chairman. He had barred the entry of the locals by erecting a fence. The local authorities have removed the encroachment and opened the park for locals.
Main gate of park ‘encroached’ by Balasubramaniam sealed
In wake of complaints of alleged encroachment by former Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) chairman Raman Balasubramaniam on a park adjoining his residence in Block-G of Bhai Randhir Singh (BRS) Nagar, LIT officials on Thursday sealed the main gate of the park to stop entry of cars into the green belt.
As per officials, a gate of 8-10 feet width was installed at the site through which cars were parked inside the park. The gate has been sealed and a small gate at one corner of the park (4 feet width) has been opened to facilitate public entry.
The department had received a number of complaints against Balasubramaniam in the past and a few complaints were also submitted with the vigilance department. The former chairman was accused of using the green belt for parking his cars, keeping it locked to restrict entry of others and opening a gate into the park from the rear side of his house. Balasubramaniam, however, had refuted the allegations. He is currently on the run in the corruption case related to sale of plots.
An LIT official said that complaints were received during the Congress regime too but no action was taken.
LIT superintending engineer Rakesh Garg said the action has been taken on the basis of complaints received in the past. A number of other encroachments in Blocks J and G of BRS Nagar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar were also razed by LIT teams on Thursday.
