AAP ex-MLA Amarjit Singh Sandoa under lens for using car bought with ‘tainted money’

Tribune News Service

Arun Sharma

Ropar, August 28

The ongoing investigation into a multi-crore land scam has put former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Ropar Amarjit Singh Sandoa in a spot for using a car allegedly purchased with “tainted money”.

An Innova Crysta car being used by Sandoa for more than a year has come under the scanner of the Vigilance Bureau (VB), which is investigating the case.

The probe has revealed that one of the suspects in the land scam case made the payment for the car, which was owned by Sandoa’s father-in-law Mohan Singh. About Rs 19 lakh was credited into the account of a car dealer in October 2020.

Rs 19 lakh was paid

• The probe has revealed that one of the suspects in the land scam case made the payment for the car, which was owned by Amarjit Singh Sandoa’s father-in-law
• About Rs 19 lakh was credited into the account of a car dealer in October 2020; Sandoa was the Ropar MLA then

Sandoa was the Ropar MLA then. In this year’s Assembly elections, the party replaced him with Dinesh Chadha who successfully contested the poll.

When contacted, the former legislator claimed that his political rivals had hatched a conspiracy to defame him. “I am innocent. I explained the matter to Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Friday,” he said.

Conspiracy by rivals

My father-in-law had purchased the car and gave it to me. I never asked my in-laws about the source of money, with which the car was bought. My political rivals have hatched a conspiracy to defame him. I am innocent. —Amarjit Singh Sandoa, AAP Ex-MLA

Four Indian Forest Service officers have already been chargesheeted in the land scam case.

Sources in the VB say Jalandhar resident Barinder Kumar, who was found to be involved in the scam during the investigation, had made the payment for the car.

Now, the VB has asked Ropar Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM) Harbans Singh to block the car registration.

The SDM said, “I received the VB’s letter on August 26. Action has been taken accordingly.”

The land scam case pertains to a tender floated by the Punjab State Forest Corporation on May 29, 2019, to acquire land for compensatory afforestation.

For this, SGPC member Daljit Singh Bhinder and his brother Amarinder Singh Bhinder had offered their land for Rs 9.9 lakh per acre at Karura village near Nurpur Bedi.

The collector rate of the land in the area was fixed at a mere Rs 90,000 per acre. Still, department officials agreed to purchase 54 acre and 8 marla from the two brothers at a price demanded by them. It was forestland but, on paper, it was shown as non-forestland, the probe revealed.

The district police had registered a case two months ago at the Nurpur Bedi police station. It was later transferred to the VB.

According to bank statements, the Bhinder brothers had in September 2020 transferred about Rs 2 crore to the bank account of a Jalandhar woman in connection with the land deal.

She further credited a substantial amount into the bank account of her husband, Barinder. On October 16, 2020, he transferred

Rs 19,00,047 to the car dealer.

The sources say this amount was used to buy Innova Crysta, which was later registered in Ropar in the name of Mohan Singh.

Sandoa admitted that his father-in-law had purchased the car and gave it to him. “I never asked my in-laws about the source of money, with which the car was bought. Earlier as well, they helped me in purchasing cars when I started my transport business in Delhi.” Mohan Singh could not be contacted as he is admitted to the PGI, Chandigarh, for a kidney-related ailment.

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