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DA case: Governor gives nod to prosecute Dharamsot
Dharamsot was booked by the Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) in connection with the alleged forest scam in June 2022. During investigation, the VB also registered a disproportionate assets case against him.
Chandigarh
Punjab governor Gulab Chand Kataria has given sanction to prosecute former Congress minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot in a disproportionate assets case, paving the way for trial against him.
Dharamsot was booked by the Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) in connection with the alleged forest scam in June 2022. During investigation, the VB also registered a disproportionate assets case against him.
“Sufficient evidences have been brought on record to establish a prima-facie case for granting sanction for prosecution under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Sadhu Singh Dharamsot in both FIRs registered against him,” read the orders of the Punjab governor received by the vigilance bureau. The governor gave the sanction on December 5 and now the file has been sent to a court to start the trial, said a VB official requestion anonymity.
Dharamsot, who held the forest portfolio in Capt Amarinder Singh’s cabinet, was the first former minister to be arrested after the Aam Aadmi Party government came to power. He was arrested on June 7, 2022, on allegations that he took kickbacks to issue permits to cut trees, transfer officials, make purchases and issue no-objection certificates. The alleged scam took place during the Congress regime from 2017-2022.
On February 7, 2023, the VB again arrested him for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Later, on January 16, 2024, the enforcement directorate (ED) arrested him in connection with a money laundering case. He was currently out on bail.
During investigation, the VB found that the former minister allegedly collected ₹1.5 crore from bribe and amassed ₹5 crore more than his known source of income. He was also having plots, which he had not shown in income tax or property return, according to the VB probe.
Forest department contractor Harminder Singh Hummy had disclosed in his statement recorded under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act that he had been maintaining a handwritten diary regarding bribes given to senior officers of the forests department, political leaders and their frontmen from time-to-time since 2017 and further, on his demarcation, the said diary was recovered from his place. The perusal and investigation into the contents of the diary revealed the modus-operandi of the culprits, which led to their arrests.
In his statement, Hummy said he paid ₹500 for felling of each khair tree to Dharamsot. He obtained permits for cutting 7,000 trees for the October-March season for which he had to pay of ₹1,000 per tree, which includes payment of ₹500 to Dharamsot, ₹200 to divisional forest officer and ₹100 each to range officer, block officer and forest guard, respectively, the contractor had said in the statement recorded under the Evidence Act.
The investigation further revealed that the former minister used to get alleged bribe of ₹10 to ₹20 lakh for the transfer of DFO, ₹5 to ₹8 lakh for ranger, ₹5 lakh for block officer and ₹2 to ₹3 lakh for forest guard through his OSD.
