Minister’s cook is director of 3 companies too

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 29

Punjab Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh’s cook — who successfully bid for a Rs 26-crore sand mine in an e-auction recently — might have had just Rs 4,000 in his bank account, but documents accessed by The Tribune show him as the director of three companies. One of these is registered at the same address as that of a company of Rana Gurjit.

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Two of the three companies also share the email address of Rana Gurjit’s companies. After The Tribune report on cook Amit Bahadur winning the mining bid, Rana Gurjit had denied any link with Bahadur, claiming he and the three other employees in question had left their jobs a long time ago.

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According to the records with the Registrar of Companies, Amit Bahadur and Balraj Singh — two of Rana Gurjit’s four employees who bagged mining contracts (though Balraj backed out when it came to depositing 55 per cent of the bidding amount) — are directors of Flawless Traders Private Limited.

Amit Bahadur became a director on August 17, 2015 and Balraj on June 25, 2016. As per the records, the registered address of the company is SCO 51-52, Sector 8-C, Chandigarh and its email id is [email protected]. Rana Gurjit’s family’s company Rana Energy Limited has the same registered address. Apart from Flawless Traders Private Limited, Amit Bahadur and Balraj Singh are shown as directors of two more companies together, including Century

Agros Private Limited, which have the same email id ([email protected]). The company’s registered address is SCO 1114, Sector 22-B, Chandigarh. 

A visit revealed that it is a kids’ mall, Rama Stores. Owner Varinder Kumar said no such company was registered at the address. He said for more than a decade, they had not had a tenant. After going through the records, he said around 12 years back a financial consultancy firm operated from here. “They might have had a company registered in such a name,” said Varinder Kumar.

The third company of which Amit Bahadur and Balraj Singh are shown as directors is RJ Texfab Private Limited. It has a different email id, with the registered address shown as House No. 108, Sector 18-A, Chandigarh. A visit revealed that the property is owned by one Ratanjeet Singh. His son Gurpreet Singh said the firm was registered around two decades back as they were planning a textile project in Lalru with Rana Gurjit’s relatives. “But it could never take off so the company existed only on paper,” he said.

He said he did not know either Amit Bahadur or Balraj Singh. As per the signatory details of RJ Texfab Private Limited, Amit Bahadur became its director in August 2015 and Balraj in August 2016.