E-Paper
₹2,000-cr food grain transportation scam: Bail plea of district food supplies controller dismissed
The court of Additional session judge Ajit Atri dismissed bail plea of district food and civil supplies controller Harveen Kaur on Tuesday.
The court of Additional session judge Ajit Atri dismissed bail plea of district food and civil supplies controller (DFSC) Harveen Kaur on Tuesday. The DFSC, one of the accused in the ₹2,000 crore food grain transportation scam, had applied for a regular bail before the court.
Hearing on the bail application of another accused DFSC Sukhwinder Singh has been adjourned to December 20 as his counsel did not appear in the court on Tuesday. The accused are lodged in the jail on judicial remand.
The vigilance bureau had arrested both DFSC on November 22 for their alleged involvement in the scam.
According to the vigilance officials Sukhwinder Singh Gill and Harveen Kaur were members/conveners of district tender committee at the time of allotment of the tenders. They along with other members of committee were responsible to check the relevant documents attached with the tenders including list of transport vehicles but they had not verified the registration numbers of vehicles intentionally as the number of scooters and motorcycles were mentioned in the attached list of vehicles. Despite submission of wrong documents, the accused officers have allotted tenders to their favourite contractors by accepting bribe from them.
As per the investigation Sukhwinder Singh had taken ₹ 2 lakh and one Apple I-Phone as bribe and Harveen Kaur DFSC had taken ₹ 3 lakh as bribe from accused Telu Ram contractor for the favour to the contractors/tenderers.
On August 16, the vigilance bureau had registered a case against the partners of Gurdas Ram and Company, officials of the state food and civil supplies department, and employees of concerned procurement agencies for allegedly committing irregularities in accepting labour, cartage and transportation tenders for grain markets in Ludhiana district. An FIR was registered under sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467 (forgery of valuable security, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120B (party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the IPC and sections 7 (2), 8, 12 and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act at the vigilance bureau police station in Ludhiana.
Partner of the firm Telu Ram was arrested by the vigilance bureau. Later, the vigilance bureau had nominated Ashu in the case. Ashu was arrested on August 22 from a salon in Ludhiana amid high drama. A total of six accused have been arrested in the case so far. Ashu is lodged in Patiala Jail. The Punjab and Haryana high court has already dismissed his bail application.
