Punjab CM Amarinder, son Raninder discharged in Ludhiana City Centre case
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder Singh, son-in-law Raminder Singh and 28 others accused were discharged in the Ludhiana City Centre case here on Wednesday afternoon.
The court of district and sessions judge Gurbir Singh accepted the closure report in the case that was filed by the Punjab vigilance bureau more than two years ago. The case was registered in 2007.
According to the vigilance, Capt Amarinder Singh and 35 others caused the state exchequer a loss to the tune of ₹1,144 crore, by favouring a private builder during his previous term as the CM from 2002-07, in the Ludhiana City Centre project that was rolled out in 2006.
Five of the accused died during the trial.
In its inquiry, the vigilance alleged that Amarinder, in connivance with LIT officials and others, favoured a private company, M/S Today Homes, and awarded it the contract by ‘tampering bids’. It was also alleged that the Congress wanted funding of at least ₹100 crore from this project for the 2007 polls and, therefore, the then CM and others received this ‘bribe money’ from the owners of M/S Today Homes for awarding them the contract.
The vigilance probe added that LIT officials allegedly tampered with the bids on the night of May 10-11, 2005, at Hotel Park Plaza, Ludhiana, where Today Homes representatives were also present. This was five days before bids were officially opened on May 17, 2005.
However, in 2017, the investigating agency took a U-turn in the case in the closure report, saying that all the allegations were fictitious.
Over the past two years, the hearing on the closure report has been marred by petitions that have questioned the validity of the report, and have sought its dismissal.
Prominent among those who challenged the closure report include former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini; former vigilance SSP Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu; Atam Nagar MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains and the architect for the city centre, SK Dey. All of them filed similar petitions seeking dismissal of the closure report, and wanting to submit additional evidence in the form of documents. However, the court dismissed their petitions on the grounds that they had no locus standi.
CASE FILE
Shopping malls, multiplexes, residential apartments and a helipad were planned as part of the 25-acre project that the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) was to develop. The project site on Pakhowal Road, Ludhiana is currently in ruins.
March 2007: Punjab vigilance bureau files an FIR in the Ludhiana City Centre case with Captain Amarinder Singh named as one of the accused
December 2007: Vigilance files chargesheet
June 2013: Enforcement directorate registers an ECIR (Enforcement Case Investigation Report) and begins its own investigation
August 20, 2017: Vigilance files closure report
August 30, 2018: Former SSP Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu files application for being heard, claiming that he is being threatened; court dismisses plea
November 15: Arguments on closure report begin
November 28: Former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini moves plea, urging the court to hear him out before passing an order, saying that he wished to submit additional evidence
February 27, 2019: Saini’s plea dismissed; court rules he has no locus standi
November 27, 2019: Court accepts vigilance’s closure report.
Less time to read?
Try Quickreads
-
MP gets first vista dome coach in Bhopal-Jabalpur Jan Shatabdi Express
Bhopal-Jabalpur Jan Shatabdi Express with the state's maiden vista dome coach was on Wednesday flagged off from Kamalapati Railway Station by state ministers Usha Thakur and Vishvas Sarang. Principal secretary of tourism and culture of Madhya Pradesh, Sheo Shekhar Shukla, listed the ways in which vista dome would improve the travelling experience. Under the initiative of the Madhya Pradesh tourism board, the coach was installed by the Indian Railways.
-
'Want to attack directly': Eshwarappa says Congress supporting anti-nationals
Former Karnataka minister and BJP MLA KS Eshwarappa on Wednesday directly attacked the Congress as Eshwarappa said not only in Karnataka or south India, the Congress is supporting the anti-nationals all across the country. Be it the PFI or the SDPI, the Congress is supporting them. “The man who removed Savarkar's photo is an SDPI worker whose wife is a Congress councillor,” Eshwarappa said. A young man named Prem Singh was stabbed amid the tension.
-
Bihar: Cabinet approves extension of Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali Mission for 3 years
Bihar state cabinet in its first meeting after the expansion on Tuesday approved the extension of Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali Mission for the next three years. It also gave the nod for allocation of ₹12,568 crore to be spent till the fiscal 2022-25. This was the first time that all ministers of the newly sworn-in cabinet headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar attended the meeting and discussed the agenda before giving its go ahead.
-
Truck rams into car, kills 5 members of family near Pune
Five members of a family, including two kids aged four and seven, were killed and one was seriously injured when a container truck coming from the wrong side rammed into their car on the Pune-Ahmednagar highway near Karegaon in Maharashtra on Wednesday morning, a police officer said. Pune police superintendent Abhinav Deshmukh said that the truck driver fled after the accident and a search was on to arrest him.
-
Cadbury chocolates worth ₹17 lakh stolen from Lucknow godown: Report
In a bizarre incident of theft, about 150 cartons of Cadbury chocolate bars worth ₹17 lakh were stolen from a godown in the Chinhat area of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, according to news agencies. The incident occurred on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday. Cadbury distributor Rajendra Singh Sidhu who recently shifted to an apartment in Gomti Nagar said he has filed an FIR at the Chinhat police station and urged locals to provide any inputs they have on the theft, reported news agency ANI.
