Amritsar Trust scam: Probe further, VB told

Akash Ghai

Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 24

A local court today returned the Vigilance Bureau’s (VB) cancellation report in the Amritsar Improvement Trust land scam, in which Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is among the accused.

Special Court Judge Jaswinder Singh directed the VB to further investigate the allegations of tampering with the record of the Vidhan Sabha proceedings dated March 1, 2006, and the allegedly illegal exemption granted for 32.1 acres of the Trust’s land.

The VB had filed the report in October last year. Last week, the bureau had given the clean chit to Capt Amarinder and other accused in the Ludhiana City Centre scam.

Director, prosecution, Punjab, Vijay Singla, public prosecutor Gurdeep Singh and defence counsel Ramdeep Partap Singh appeared before the court. Capt Amarinder also made an appearance.

The court observed that the allegation of record tampering was based on conjectures and surmises. ‘For the proper disposal of this cancellation report, it is necessary that the whole material pertaining to the matter be presented before the court. In the absence of this material, the court can’t form any opinion regarding the allegations against the accused,” read the court order.

The order stated: “A perusal of the record shows that when the Vidhan Sabha proceedings (dated March 1, 2006) were returned by the then Speaker on March 28, 2006, the words ‘if House agrees’ were not added. The same were added between March 28 and April 21, 2006. Hence, the assertion in the cancellation report is not based on record.”

As per the VB report, a corrigendum was issued on April 21, 2006, on the basis of corrections made by the then Speaker.

The VB mentioned in its cancellation report that the government was competent to exempt the land from acquisition as M/s Veer Colonisers had submitted an application on July 1, 2003, seeking a licence under the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act to develop a colony. The notification pertaining to the land was issued on December 5, 2003. The court observed that as per the record, the policy/notification dated December 17, 2004, was withdrawn by the government on July 26, 2005.

“The investigating agency was required to produce on record relevant policy/notification under which land in question was exempted, but no such document is attached with the cancellation report,” the court observed.

Whistleblower hails move

Welcoming the court’s decision to return the cancellation report, former Deputy Speaker Bir Devinder Singh, the whistleblower in the case, claimed that he volunteered to depose before the trial court if it appointed an amicus curiae to help him in presenting the evidence. Bir Devinder said he had raised the issue in the Vidhan Sabha on February 22, 2006. The VB had recorded his statement, but it was never presented before the court.

Capt Amarinder Among accused

September 11, 2008

The Vigilance Bureau files FIR under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and Sections 7, 8(1)(C) (D) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against 18 persons, including Capt Amarinder Singh, regarding a ‘scam’ in granting exemption for transferring 32.1 acres of prime land of the Amritsar Improvement Trust to a private developer. Three of the accused — former ministers Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and Raghunath Sahai Puri, and former Speaker Dr Kewal Krishan – have died over the past decade

February 10, 2009 : Challan filed

December 22, 2014 : The HC orders fresh probe

October 7, 2016 : The VB files cancellation report, giving the clean chit to all accused