Illegal mining: Panel’s clean chit to Speaker’s son-in-law
Arun Sharma
Tribune News Service
Ropar, December 13
The Justice Mehtab Singh Gill Commission, which is probing allegedly false cases registered during the 10-year SAD-BJP rule, has recommended the cancellation of a four-year-old case related to illegal mining, registered against a stone crusher owned by Speaker Rana KP Singh’s son-in-law Dhruv Singh Kanwar.
A case under Section 188 of IPC and Sections 21(1) and 4(1) of the Mining Act was registered against GM Construction at Bela Dhiani near Nangal on the complaint of a Mining Department official. According to the FIR registered on March 13, 2014, the department allegedly found that the crusher was operating without registration. The department had recommended the registration of a police case and confiscation of material on the premises.
Opposition MLAs Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Simarjit Singh Bains had raised the issue in the Assembly last year. Rana KP Singh had termed it a case of political vendetta. He had claimed that his relatives were targeted by his political opponents to tarnish his image.
According to sources in the district administration and the police, Kanwar had filed a complaint last year with the Commission. In July this year, the Commission recommended that the case against GM Construction be cancelled.
When contacted, Commission registrar RS Ratol said Kanwar’s complaint against the allegedly false case of illegal mining was decided on merit.
The registrar stated that till July 31 last year, the last date for submitting applications, 4,400 complaints of alleged frame-up were received by the Commission. Till last month, the Commission had disposed of 2,151 cases and recommended the cancellation of FIRs in 368 cases, he added.
