Ludhiana Vigilance Bureau arrests former PSPCL chief KD Chaudhry for ‘misusing' government funds

The Vigilance Bureau, Economic Offences Wing, Ludhiana, on Wednesday arrested KD Chaudhry, the former CMD of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), along with the then SDO Sanjeev Prabhakar and Ludhiana-based builder Amit Garg.

The three were arrested after a vigilance inquiry found that they had connived and installed a 66 KV sub-station by using Rs 10 crore of government funds in the private housing colony, Basant City in Ludhiana, against the rules.

Prabhakar, the then SDO, and Chaudhry, the then CMD of the PSPCL, had allegedly bypassed the rules and installed the sub-station by spending money from the department funds. While according to the rules, the builder himself had to instal that. Connivance of the PSPCL officials with the builder was established during the vigilance probe.

SDO Prabhakar retired as the deputy chief engineer from the department a few years ago and Chaudhry retired in 2017.

A VB official said the probe into the case had been going on since 2021 and a FIR was lodged this year.

VB public prosecutor Balwinder Singh sought a four-day police remand for all three, arguing that the matter was still at an initial stage and required detailed investigation. The prosecution further contended that custodial interrogation was necessary to unearth the larger conspiracy and identify each accused’s role in the alleged irregularities.

The defence opposed the remand plea. Counsel for KD Chaudhary and Sanjeev Prabhakar argued that Chaudhary had retired about 15 years ago, while Prabhakar retired nearly four years ago. The defence maintained that the entire case was based on documentary evidence already in the VB’s possession, and therefore prolonged custodial interrogation would serve no useful purpose.

Senior advocate Parupkar Ghumman, representing KD Chaudhary, alleged that the arrest itself was illegal. He further contended that the Vigilance Bureau had violated Supreme Court guidelines by not furnishing proper grounds of arrest to the accused.

After hearing both sides, the court remanded all three accused to police custody for two days.