E-Paper
Punjab vigilance bureau misused its powers: HC
The Punjab and Haryana high court has said that the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) ‘misused its powers’ and FIRs were registered against the former Congress minister, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and others, just to ‘harass’ them
The Punjab and Haryana high court has said that the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) ‘misused its powers’ and FIRs were registered against the former Congress minister, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and others, just to ‘harass’ them.
“…criminal proceedings have been initiated against petitioner(s) by the Vigilance Bureau at the instance of complainant, just to harass them and as such, it amounts to misuse of powers by the Bureau, for the reasons, which are unknown to law,” the bench of justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu recorded in both the orders quashing two FIRs involving the former minister on December 20. Detailed judgments have been provided now.
One FIR was registered on August 16, 2022, in Ludhiana by the VB, while the second FIR was registered by the VB on September 22, 2022, in Jalandhar. Both the FIRs were registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act and various other provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in an alleged ₹2,000-crore scam involving the transportation of foodgrains during the previous Congress regime from 2017-2022.
The allegations were that the then minister indulged in corruption in awarding tenders for the transportation of foodgrains. Also, he received bribe through his conduits for compromising tender for food procurement and transportation, its quality, and conditions.
The court noted that the Punjab government policy “The Punjab Foodgrains Labour and Cartage Policy 2020-2021 reveals that an amendment has been made to facilitate every contractor concerned and there was no intention to give benefit to any particular person. The policy was challenged in high court in 2020 and a division bench dismissed the petitions against the same.
The court further said that the division bench order has attained finality as it was not challenged by any of the parties. “..the clause which has been made the sole basis for initiation of criminal prosecution has already been judicially reviewed by the division bench of this court and the same is duly upheld (in 2020),” the court said adding that the policy for 2020-21 was framed by the state government and thus, it cannot be said that decision about the same was taken by Ashu.
In the Ludhiana FIR case, the court also quashed criminal proceedings against one Sukhwinder Singh Gill, Harveen Kaur and Paramjit Chechi, one of the successful bidders stating that Gurpreet Singh, an unsuccessful bidder had an “axe to grind against him”.
“Thus, there is no hesitation to observe that allegations levelled in the FIR do not disclose any cognizable offence and at best, the complainant could have availed remedy of judicial review against the amended policy for 2020-231 but certainly there was no occasion to prosecute the petitioner(s) on that count,” the court said in both the orders.
It also added that the allegations in both the FIRs are verbatim the same and there was no occasion for the VB, Jalandhar, to register a second FIR on the same cause of action. “It amounts to double jeopardy and as such, the present FIR is liable to be quashed,” it said while ordering FIR registered in Jalandhar.
