Ludhiana, May 19
Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, his son and other close relatives had allegedly bought property in foreign countries and deposited a huge amount of money in Swiss Bank through hawala racket after receiving multi-crore kickbacks in the city centre project scam and other projects, the Vigilance Bureau claimed today.
The bureau has also sought government permission for once again investigating into the IntraNet scam featuring Raninder Singh, son of Capt Amarinder Singh, as the main accused. His brother-in-law Raminder Singh, alias Richi, is also accused of receiving kickbacks and buying property from
his share in the booty.
Former finance minister Surinder Singla was also today named as one of the beneficiaries of the expected Rs 4,000 crore profits that officials of Today Homes conceived in the City Centre project. His name has propped up for the first time in the scam.
The bureau claimed that the sharing of profit in the project was decided well in advance at a meeting that took place at Moti Mahal in which, Capt Amarinder Singh, P. S. Sibia, Surinder Singla, Raninder Singh, Raminder Singh, B.I.S Chahal and Today Home officials G K Gambhir and V. Subikhi finalised the project deal and sharing percentage of the Rs 4,000-crore profit.
A commission of inquiry set up by the former Chief Minister during his tenure, had, however, acquitted Raninder Singh from all charges.
Bureau SSP Kanwarjit Singh claimed this on the basis of the
confessional statement of arrested alleged conduit and broker, Chetan Gupta, who made startling disclosures about the foreign investments of the former Chief Minister, his son and other relatives, from kickbacks received in city centre as well as the IntraNet scam.
Sources have disclosed to The Tribune that Chetan Gupta had also disclosed bank lockers in which he had kept the sale deeds of the foreign investments. These deeds have allegedly been kept at Bank of Tokyo, Parliament Street, New Delhi, Lord Krishna Bank, New Delhi, and Chinese Trust Commercial Bank, Windsor.
The list of the conduits in the city centre scam and other controversial deals increased rapidly today with the bureau claiming that apart from the alleged broker a large number of persons, including foreign based ‘deal facilitators’, were involved in deciding the kickbacks and the black money transaction.
The middlemen include, London-based software businessman Sachin Duggal, diamond merchant Jatin Kothari a.k.a JD and a few others.The SSP said the transactions through hawala channels had been going on since 2003 when the IntraNet project was conceived. He said Chetan Gupta was closely associated with the Capt Amarinder Singh for the past three generations and was privy to several underhand deals made by the family.
He said Chetan had disclosed that Raninder Singh had first approached him for the IntraNet project but as he had no expertise in this he referred him to close friend Sachin Duggal. Duggal was a software businessman based in London and helped the former Chief Minister and his family members in depositing the black money in Swiss Bank accounts through a diamond merchant Jatin Kothari. The Vigilance claims $1.20 lakh were deposited in various installments.
He said most of the meetings regarding the transaction of the black money as well as the deals regarding the projects were held at a Delhi-based residence of MP Preneet Kaur, wife of Capt Amarinder Singh. However, there was no allegation so far against Preneet Kaur as since she was not present in the meetings.
The SSP said the former Chief Minister had deposited or invested Rs 50 crore directly form the city centre project as per the investigations so far. He said this was just one of the several installments of kickback he had received during his tenure.
