Chandigarh, April 4
Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking directions to the Punjab Police, the Vigilance Bureau (VB) and others not to arrest him in transit when he returns to India from the UK sometime later this month.
Amarinder and 18 others, including former minister Choudhary Jagjit Singh, were recently booked by the VB for their role in the alleged Ludhiana City Centre scam.
In his petition filed today, Amarinder has stated that he has already informed the government of his desire to join the investigation and was ready to cooperate in any investigation and therefore he should not be arrested either at the airport or outside for 10 days.
The former Chief Minister’s wife Preneet Kaur, who is the Congress MP from Patiala, has filed an affidavit on behalf of her husband. The petition will come up for hearing tomorrow.
Amarinder has stated that since the Punjab Vigilance Bureau has issued a Interpol red corner notice against him, he apprehends that he would be arrested on his arrival in the country. This, he has added, would serve no purpose as he was ready to join the investigations and face further proceedings, if any, on his own.
Incidentally, in his plea, Amarinder has also raised questions over the genuineness of the case against him, saying that he has been wrongly booked. He has also accused the SAD-BJP government of political vendetta.
The Tribune had earlier this week reported the advice of lawyers of the former Chief Minister not to apply for anticipatory bail in connection with the case registered against him in the Ludhiana City Centre scam.
Following the legal advice, Amarinder, who is at present in London, had decided to seek transit bail so that he was not arrested on the airport or on way to Chandigarh or Punjab. He had gone to London for a medical check-up soon after taking oath as member of the Punjab Assembly.
He has already told The Tribune that he intends to return on April 9. However, sources close to the former Chief Minister say a final decision with regard to his return would be taken only after the outcome of his plea for grant of transit bail.
Apart from Amarinder and Jagjit Singh, former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president H.S. Hanspal and officials of the Delhi-based Today Homes, which had been granted the project by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust for developing the City Centre, stand booked on charges of embezzlement, cheating, fraud, forgery, conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The FIR says that kickbacks of at least Rs 100 crore changed hands between government functionaries and the top management of Today Homes.
