Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Tuesday described the arrest of former forest minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot as “political vendetta” and asked chief minister Bhagwant Mann to let the law take its course and not resort to “kangaroo court justice”.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrested the former minister and Congress leader along with two others on corruption charges in the early hours on Tuesday. A Mohali court later sent him to three-day police custody. Dharamsot has denied corruption charges levelled against him, saying he is being framed.
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Several Congress leaders, including Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, state legislators Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Rana Gurjeet Singh, former speaker Rana KP and Punjab Congress working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu, reached the VB office in Mohali to register protest.
Warring, who met senior superintendent of police, vigilance, Gagan Ajit Singh, said it was a clear case of political vendetta as Dharamsot had been arrested on the statement of a divisional forest officer (DFO) with tainted past.
DFO Guramanpreet Singh along with a contractor was arrested in a corruption case and is in the VB custody. It is alleged the duo spilled the beans about corruption and embezzlement of funds in the department under Dharamsot.
{{/usCountry}}DFO Guramanpreet Singh along with a contractor was arrested in a corruption case and is in the VB custody. It is alleged the duo spilled the beans about corruption and embezzlement of funds in the department under Dharamsot.
{{/usCountry}}Warring said that as the Punjab government could not find anything against Dharamsot in the scholarship scam, he has now been arrested in a fake case. Dharamsot was indicted in a scholarship scam by an IAS officer during Capt Amarinder Singh’s tenure, but was given a clean chit.