Hamdard moves HC for independent probe

Chandigarh, May 30

Barjinder Singh Hamdard today moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court for transferring to any independent agency, like the CBI, the inquiry initiated by the Vigilance Bureau’s Jalandhar unit regarding construction and running of the Jang-e-Azadi memorial.

Hamdard, the chief editor of the Ajit newspaper and a former MP, has made Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann a party by name. He contended the inquiry initiated on a source report was required to be transferred “in the background of a very open and public tussle between Ajit newspaper and the government”. He added there was, as such, an irrefutable apprehension in his mind that the inquiry would not be fair, impartial and unbiased.

“The sequence of facts and especially the tweet by the CM and hostile conduct towards the Ajit newspaper(s) ex facie reflects that any inquiry by the Vigilance Department is not expected to be fair and impartial by any stretch of imagination. It is further to be pointed out that the VB is currently being run as a personal fiefdom of the CM.”

In his petition filed through senior counsel RS Cheema with advocates Arshdeep Singh Cheema, R Kartikeya and Ishan Khetarpal, Hamdard has also sought directions to the independent agency or the CBI to also investigate the manner in which the “instant inquiry has been initiated and how independent media houses are being pressurised either by withholding advertisements or by misuse of law at the behest of the state government.”

It was added that the petitioner was shocked to receive summons, requiring him to be present before the DSP, VB, Jalandhar.