Ludhiana Improvement Trust chief engineer Manmohan Singh (left) and executive officer D.C. Garg (right)
being taken to court on Saturday.
— Photo by Inderjeet Verma |
Ludhiana, April 21
Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) chief engineer Manmohan Singh and executive officer D.C. Garg, the only two government officials accused in the multi-crore City Centre scam, were arrested by the vigilance bureau here today.
Manmohan Singh is the brother of Charanjit Singh Channy, a sitting Independent MLA from Chamkaur Sahib supporting the SAD-BJP government.
Judicial Magistrate Kuldeep Singh remanded them in police custody till April 23. The duo was produced before the court at around 4.30 pm amid tight security.
The vigilance bureau was represented by special public prosecutors Ashwani Bedi, M.L. Solanki and Suckhchain Singh.
Interestingly, Manmohan Singh, a law graduate, argued his case more than his lawyer did. He submitted before the court that he was innocent and wrongly booked. He said he and Garg were co-operating with the police during the investigation. They were the first ones to report about the wrongdoings in the passing of this project to the government in writing. Instead of making them witnesses, they were named in the case.
He said on April 9 he had joined investigation before SP Dilbagh Singh of Jalandhar,
who was deputed to record their statements. However, the special public prosecutors claimed that the Jalandhar SP was not even a member of SIT.
Counsel for the accused argued that his clients were called to the local vigilance bureau office for further investigation, but were arrested.
After hearing both parties, the court remanded them in police custody.
The judge ordered the bureau to allow the counsel for the accused to meet them from 4 to 6 pm till the police remand.
