Former minister arrested
From Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

PATIALA, Dec 8 — A favour bestowed on a sister proved costly for former Congress panchayat and Home Minister Brij Bhupinder Singh who was today arrested by the Patiala Vigilance Bureau for getting funds released for construction of a road to his sister’s farmhouse.

A team of the Vigilance Bureau led by Deputy Superintendent of Police R.S. Dhillon today arrested the former minister following a raid on his Sector 10 residence in Chandigarh. The former minister was brought here and produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate S.K. Aggarwal who remanded him to judicial custody till December 22.

The former minister was arrested for riding roughshod over all established rules by ordering the release of Rs 13 lakh for construction of a link road to his sister’s farmhouse near Bhadaur in Sangrur district towards the end of 1996.

The money was released from the Jawaharlal Nehru Yojna for a “circular road”. Surprisingly, there is no village near the farmhouse of the former minister’s sister.

Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) B.K. Uppal said it had been revealed that the release of the funds had not been recorded in any register of the Panchayat Department.

The grant itself was given to an executive engineer of the Panchayati Raj instead of the District Development and Panchayati officer as per convention.

Mr Uppal said the grant was released after the former minister sent a note to the department saying certain panchayats had met him and requested that roads be constructed round their villages. He said the farmhouse of the former minister’s sister was near Sant Nagri near Bhadaur and could not qualify to be part of any village.

The SP Vigilance, also disclosed that executive engineer Raman Kumar Verma had been arrested earlier in this case in December, 1998. He said the case was originally against Mr Verma but its ambit had been increased after Mr Brij Bhupinder Singh’s role in the release of the grant became clear.

He said Mr Verma had also written letters to Sub-Divisional Officers of the department, ordering them to construct the road as soon as possible. He said more facts were likely to come to light following interrogation of the accused.

Mr Brij Bhupinder Singh had been arrested under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC read with 13(1) C(D), 13 (2) 88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act at the vigilance police station here, he added.

Mr Brij Bhupinder Singh is also facing a vigilance inquiry for allegedly being instrumental in violating financial procedures while disbursing a central grant of Rs 14 crore under the Jawahar Rozgar Yojna (JRY).

The inquiry into the infamous JRY scam, in which five officials were also allegedly involved, was initiated by Mr Parkash Singh Badal, the Chief Minister. The JRY scheme was meant for the youth in the border districts of Punjab.

Multi-crore scandal in bus tickets
Some more arrests likely
By Sarbjit Singh
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 8 — While the Punjab Transport Department has sought complete details from the Punjab Vigilance Bureau with regard to the involvement of certain officials of Punjab Roadways in the alleged multi-crore scandal in Pathankot Depot, the bureau is continuing with its drive to arrest those involved in the scandal.

A top functionary of the Transport Department told TNS that the department had information at the official-level about the involvement of two bus conductors in the scandal. Both conductors have been suspended. “We have not got any further detail from the Vigilance Bureau. As soon as we get the official report from the bureau about the involvement of more roadways employees including officers, appropriate action at the department-level would be taken against them”, the transport functionary said.

Meanwhile, Mr A.P. Pandey, Director of the bureau told this correspondent here that teams of vigilance officials had been despatched to various places to nab the suspects. “The case will be followed to its logical end and nobody will be spared”, he added.

As many as 28 officials, including two General Managers and one Assistant Director, are suspected to be involved in the scandal. Already, six officials including Mr Jaswant Singh, Mr Khariti Lal, Mr Ajmeri Lal, Mr Shangara Singh, and Mr Chaman Lal have been arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Some of the remaining suspects have got stay against arrest till December 10 from a court.

Mr Pandey said the bureau was also opposing, through its legal officers, the applications moved by the suspects and the accused persons in the various courts for anticipatory bail. The case at Pathankot was being handled by a vigilance team working under the direct supervision of Mr R.K. Sharda, S.P., Vigilance for Amritsar region. Mr Sharda said that the case against those involved in the scandal had been registered at Jalandhar at the bureau’s police station.

The scandal came to light when a DSP, Mr Pinder Singh, posted at Pathankot and Inspector Kashmira Singh conducted a surprise checking of two roadways buses on the Pathankot-Jammu route on November 19. During checking and further investigation it was found that bogus tickets had been issued by both conductors to the passengers. In fact, tickets of one rupee value had been given to passengers for Rs 30. The value of tickets from one rupee to Rs 30 was enhanced by using rubber stamps.

Following further investigation it was found that even the one rupee tickets were fake and had not been issued by the authorities concerned at the official level. Raids were conducted at the residence of the conductors involved in this racket and fake tickets worth several thousand rupees were recovered. Also six rubber stamps (seals) denoting value of Rs 26, Rs 30, and Rs 20 were also recovered.

Mr Pandey said that the real story came to light after the recovery of a diary from the residence of a conductor. The conductor had made several entries in the diary stating how much money he had given to different officers and others concerned as “monthly”.

Among the names found written in the diary are of Mr Amarjit Singh Lohka, Mr Jarnail Singh, Mr Ajmeri Lal, Mr Amarjit Singh and Mr Joginder Pal. The “monthly” amount varied between Rs 11,000 and Rs 500 or so. “The bigger the designation, the bigger the amount”, was the criteria followed by the conductors involved in the scandal, the vigilance officers investigating the case said.

Along with investigation of this case, the Vigilance Bureau has also started collecting the details of the property of certain officers allegedly involved in the scandal. There are reports that the income of the Pathankot depot has increased following the exposure of this scandal.

However, there was no confirmation of it from Pathankot depot. When an official of the Pathankot depot was contacted over the phone by TNS, he refused to give any detail with regard to the increase in the income of the depot. However, a reliable source said that the booking of the buses which were checked by vigilance officers had gone up from Rs 2200 to Rs 4200.