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Jang-e-Azadi probe: Punjab Vigilance Bureau summons Hamdard for third time
This is the third time that the VB had summoned Hamdard, who has already responded twice in writing to a 17-point questionnaire sent to him by the probe agency.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has once again summoned Ajit Group editor-in-chief Barjinder Singh Hamdard along with senior IAS officer Vinay Bublani and six executive engineers of the public works department (PWD) to appear before it on Friday regarding a probe into the alleged misuse of funds during the execution of ₹315-crore Jang-e-Azadi Memorial at Kartarpur in Jalandhar.
This is the third time that the VB had summoned Hamdard, who has already responded twice in writing to a 17-point questionnaire sent to him by the probe agency.
Hamdard, along with Vinay Bublani, former CEO of the memorial’s managing committee, remained instrumental in the conception and construction of the project since 2012. Hamdard quit as member secretary of the Jang-e-Azadi Memorial Foundation and as its managing committee president on April 10 after the VB kicked off the investigation into the whole matter.
One of the VB officials, who didn’t wish to be named, said they have gathered key evidences that the contractors were made full payments even though the work was not completed as allotted in the tenders.
“A private company was given work for the interiors of 10 galleries but only 6 were completed while the total payment was made to the company,” an official said.
“Both the replies filed by Hamdard were found to be unsatisfactory,” he added.
The VB official said in the initial investigation, it had surfaced that the concerned authorities, who were at the helm of affairs then, misused their position and made contractors work without issuing the tenders.
The 17-pointer questionnaire focused on the verification of source report regarding the Jang-e-Azadi Memorial project, the timeline of funds allocated to its foundation committee by the respective government, tendering process adopted, procurement of furniture and other equipment and infrastructure used in the project, the official said.
Based on complaints of alleged misuse of funds in the construction of the memorial, the Jalandhar VB initiated the probe in March this year. Besides confiscating official records from drawings to funds sanctioned by the state government from 2014-16, the VB questioned the memorial’s managing committee secretary. Spread over 25 acres at Kartarpur, the mega project was initiated by the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government.
It may be mentioned that the Ajit Group editor had moved the Punjab and Haryana high court after VB’s May 29 summon, demanding that the probe be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On June 1, the high court directed the VB to send a questionnaire to Hamdard in writing and not to summon him.
