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Punjab: More VB heat on Manpreet Badal, to be grilled in land allotment case
More than a month after recording the statement of former MLA Sarup Chand Singla, the complainant in the case, and scrutinising records of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA), the Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) is all set to grill former finance minister Manpreet Badal on Monday for alleged irregularities in the purchase of a property in the prime location in Bathinda
BATHINDA : More than a month after recording the statement of former MLA Sarup Chand Singla, the complainant in the case, and scrutinising records of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA), the Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) is all set to grill former finance minister Manpreet Badal on Monday for alleged irregularities in the purchase of a property in the prime location in Bathinda.
Manpreet is the 11th ex-Congress minister facing the VB heat.
The plot measuring 2,500 square yards is located adjacent to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) office in Model Town, phase 1. The VB is probing charges that Manpreet abused his position as a minister in the previous Congress government to convert two commercial plots into a single residential plot, thus causing a loss to the state exchequer.
The groundbreaking ceremony of Manpreet’s house, that is in the eye of the storm, was held by then chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in October 2021.
As per Manpreet’s own admission, the said plot was an investment to live closer to people in his constituency as he was living in his ancestral farmhouse at Badal village in Muktsar.
The plot has seen only a partial construction since then.
VB officials are tight-lipped in the case, people familiar with the matter said the investigators did their homework before summoning the five-time legislator in the land allotment case.
Singla had furnished a complaint before the VB’s Bathinda zone office in the alleged wrongful land allotment case in September 2021.
Officials said that officials of the BDA, the state agency mandated for urban planning and development in the city, may also join the probe to get answers on how a residential plot of 1,000 square yards was auctioned.
“Singla’s complaint was scrutinised before his statement was recorded in June before the VB’s senior superintendent of police (SSP) Harpal Singh.
Manpreet has not been asked to submit any document as he will face questions in the land allotment case, including how he bought the plot/plots. Investigators are on the job to ascertain the alleged favouritism and corruption in granting foodgrain transportation contracts during the previous Congress regime,” said an official.
VB officials privy to the matter clarified that Manpreet has been summoned on Monday in the land allotment case whereas an investigation into another complaint by Singla against the former finance minister in the alleged foodgrain transportation scam is underway.
Manpreet was not available for comments whereas his key political aide and brother-in-law Jaijeet Singh Johal said on Saturday that he would comment on the VB probes only if Manpreet agrees to share his side of the story.
A former chief parliamentary secretary, Singla had quit the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) last year to become the Bathinda district president of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) whereas Manpreet joined the saffron party in January this year after ending his 7-year-old stint with the Congress.
Singla and Manpreet earlier worked together as Akali leaders. But their relations soured after the latter joined the Congress and moved his political base to Bathinda from Gidderbaha in the adjoining district of Muktsar.
