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Punjab: Ex-FM Manpreet Badal fails to appear before VB in Bathinda, cites back pain
Probe agency ignores his plea to be questioned at Chandigarh residence, will summon him again in Bathinda, where FIR has been registered
Former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Badal failed to appear before the Vigilance Bureau (VB) in Bathinda in the plots allotment case on Monday, citing back pain for which he said he has been advised bed rest.
After Manpreet got a stay on his arrest from the Punjab and Haryana high court in connection with the cheating and forgery case on October 16, the probe agency summoned him in Bathinda on Monday but he sought exemption from personal appearance for 10 days on medical grounds.
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“I’m suffering from lower back pain and thus on October 18, I went to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, for a checkup. I have been advised bed rest for seven days. I am unable to travel to join the investigation. However, if you insist, it will be against medical advice,” Manpreet wrote to the VB. “I will be pleased if you or anybody deputed by you could come to my residence in Chandigarh and I will happily assist/cooperate with you pertaining to case,” he said.
However, his lawyer Sukhdeep Singh Bhinder submitted his original passport to the VB, as directed by the court that directed him to join the probe.
The VB ignored his request to be questioned in Chandigarh and decided to summon him again in Bathinda, where the case has been registered.
Manpreet was booked by the VB under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and Sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) 467 (forging a document that pretends to be a valuable security) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on September 24.
The VB probe has found Manpreet colluded with officials of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) and his aides to buy two residential plots by allegedly abusing his ministerial position and forgery.
