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Clean chit to Capt in City Centre scam

LUDHIANA:The Punjab Vigilance Bureau today filed a closure report on the alleged multi-crore City Centre scam, giving a clean chit to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder Singh and 30 other accused.

Clean chit to Capt in City Centre scam

Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister



Rajneesh Lakhanpal

Our Legal Correspondent

Ludhiana, August 19

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau today filed a closure report on the alleged multi-crore City Centre scam, giving a clean chit to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder Singh and 30 other accused. 

The defence counsel said a copy of the report would be given on September 2 — the next date of court hearing.

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The VB filed the report in the court of Sessions Judge Gurbir Singh on the basis of further investigation on the application of one of the accused, Chetan Gupta of New Delhi. It claimed that no wrong was done and figures of loss to the state exchequer were “imaginary”. 

The closure report relies heavily on the findings of arbitrator Justice RC Lahoti (former Chief Justice of India) in favour of Delhi-based company Today Homes, stating there was no illegality and infirmity in the contract and that the company be compensated.

As per the report, several witnesses had been intimidated into giving a statement against the accused while several had claimed not to have made any statement to the VB in 2007. One such witness was  BR Bajaj, former Principal Secretary, Local Bodies. 

There was no deal, the report said, between Capt Amarinder and Today Homes, which had got the contract from the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) for the City Centre project comprising shopping malls, multiplexes, apartments, a helipad and a parking slot. 

Evidence collected during further investigation made it clear that as CM, “Capt Amarinder only acted in public interest” with no malafide intention whatsoever. 

“Rather, he had taken several steps as per the law for removing irregularities” after eliciting the opinion of the then Chief Secretary and Advocate General, the report says.

Neither the then LIT chairman, late Paramjit Singh Sibia, nor any member of the Trust had been found to have taken a bribe from Today Homes, as mentioned in the challan, the report claimed.

Capt Amarinder had ordered a probe into the alleged scam in September 2006 on the basis of media reports but after a change of government, an FIR was filed in March 2007. Subsequently, the VB booked 36 persons. The 106-page  charge-sheet  mentioned 152 witnesses. It was filed along with more than 10,000 documents on December 12, 2007.  Although the prosecution concluded its arguments in 2012, no charges had been framed.

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