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Punjab VB arrests former minister Dharamsot, books his successor Gilzian
Scams amounting to ₹40-crore unearthed in the working of state forest department during Congress government’s tenure
In the first major crackdown on corruption by the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, the vigilance bureau on Tuesday arrested senior Congress leader and former forest minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, 62,besides his two aides for a ₹40-crore scam in the department and booked his successor Sangat Singh Gilzian, 69, for corruption.
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Gilzian has gone underground since Dharamsot’s arrest for taking bribes for transfers, commission for development works and felling of trees and purchase of tree guards besides providing illegal passage to the mining mafia and colonisers from forest land, and allowing illegal mining on forest land.
Dharamsot was the minister for forest and social welfare in the cabinet of former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. A Patiala-based journalist, Kamaljit Singh, who was allegedly working as his aide, and Chamkaur Singh, who was Dharamsot’s officer on special duty, were also arrested. Chamkaur was about to flee India and had booked a ticket for Australia early on Wednesday.
Action week after new VB chief takes charge
The development comes more than a month after Mann had warned of action against the Congress leader.
The action also comes a week after the chief minister replaced IPS officer Ishwar Singh with additional director general of police (ADGP) Verinder Kumar as the chief director of the vigilance bureau. Verinder, who was the state intelligence head during Capt Amarinder Singh’s tenure, had compiled a dossier of corruption by MLAs and ministers, but the Congress government didn’t act, officials said, adding now Mann is following up on the specific information.
The case against Dharamsot, Gilzian and others is the fallout of the arrest of divisional forest officer Gurmanpreet Singh and a private contractor Harminder Singh Hummy. They spilled the beans about the corruption and embezzlement of funds in the department.
“On the basis of their statements and corroborative evidence, it has been found that from the process of procuring sampling of trees, planting trees and up to cutting trees, both ministers (Dharamsot and Gilzian) were involved in corruption. There are scams in using funds for afforestation and other development activities. Plum posts were sold by taking bribes from officials. Thus, the chief director gave the nod to register another FIR against all accused,” said an official of the vigilance bureau.
Got clean chit in scholarship during Capt’s tenure as CM
The FIR has been registered under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. Besides Dharamsot and Gilzian, those named in the FIR are Indian Forest Service official Amit Chauhan, DFO Gurmanpreet Singh, forest guard Dilpreet Singh, Dharamsot’s OSD Chamkaur Singh, Dharamsot’s aide and vernacular reporter Kamaljit Singh, Gilzian’s PA Kulwinder Singh and aide Sachin Kumar.
Hummi was paying a bribe to Dharamsot via Kamaljeet. Chamkaur was collecting bribes for postings and transfers of officials. When Dharamsot was removed the same racket operated through his aides.
Not only charging ₹500 for felling each tree from legal contract, the bribes have been collected for contractors. A ₹6 crore embezzlement has been found in the purchase of tree guards and planting saplings. The funds of central schemes have also been embezzled by bogus billings.
Dharamsot was indicted in a scholarship scam by an IAS officer Kirpa Shankar Saroj during Captain Amarinder’s tenure, but was given a clean chit. When Amarinder was removed as CM, Dharamsot was also dropped from the cabinet.
The political go-ahead for the arrest of Dharamsot, sources said, was given on Monday night by the chief minister, who stressed that when he can “ensure the arrest of his own cabinet minister Vijay Singla, no one should be spared for corruption.
About a month ago the chief minister had given a warning in this regard.
The Congress has cried foul over the arrest of Dharamsot.
