Manpreet Badal’s anticipatory bail plea rejected by Bathinda court

PTI

Chandigarh, October 4

Bathinda court has rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Punjab’s former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal in a case pertaining to purchase of two plots at Model Town in Bathinda.

The bail plea was rejected by the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Ram Kumar Singla.

Giving details, Manpreet’s legal counsel Advocate SS Bhinder said, “We put forward our arguments in the court in favour of bail to Manpreet Badal, but court not agreeing to our arguments has rejected the bail plea. Now we will go to the high court for the bail.”

Several teams of the Punjab Vigilance Bureau had conducted raids at various locations in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan but Badal was yet to be nabbed.

The bureau had booked Badal and five others in connection with alleged irregularities in the purchase of a property in Bathinda.

An arrest warrant was issued by the court in Bathinda against Badal last month. Earlier, a lookout circular (LOC) was also issued against him.

The vigilance bureau had launched an investigation into the matter based on former MLA Sarup Chand Singla's 2021 complaint alleging irregularities in the purchase of the property at a prime location in Bathinda.

BJP leader Singla, who was earlier with the Shiromani Akali Dal, had alleged that Badal, as a minister in the previous Congress dispensation, had abused his position to convert two commercial plots into a residential plot for himself.

A case under sections of the Indian Penal Code, including sections 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery), and also under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered in the matter.

During the probe, it was found that Badal abused his position to purchase two plots measuring 1,560 square yards in Model Town phase-1 Bathinda, thereby causing a financial loss of lakhs of rupees to the state exchequer, according to the vigilance bureau.

It was found that Badal allegedly colluded with the officials of the BDA and misled the general public during the bidding of plots in the year 2021. Fake maps were uploaded to prevent public participation in the bidding process, the bureau had said. (With PTI Inputs)

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