Vigilance case against Amarinder, 17 others in land scam

Vigilance cases were registered Saturday against former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and 17 others for alleged involvement in a land scam, a move that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said was not political vendetta.

Amarinder Singh, who is presently in London for medical treatment, was named in the vigilance first information report (FIR) registered by Punjab Police along with former local bodies minister Jagjit Singh, former Ludhiana improvement trust (LIT) chairman P.S. Sibia and other bureaucrats and politicians for the scam in allotting land to one particular builder at much lower rates for the Ludhiana City Centre.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) Kanwaljit Singh Saturday said that the case had been registered after due scrutiny of the deal.

"Two persons, Amit Sardana and Kamal Verma, have already been arrested in this case. We have sent teams to various places to conduct raids and arrest others named," he added.

The Ludhiana City Centre - touted to be the biggest building in north India and to have the biggest roof with helipads - is to be set up on 450,000 square feet land in Ludhiana, Punjab's industrial hub, which has one of the highest land prices in the country.

The vigilance department has now accused the former chief minister and others of conniving in allotting the construction to Today's Homes and infrastructure at a much lower cost.

"The loss to the state in this land deal could be anything between Rs.15-30 billion," one investigating official told IANS.

Parkash Singh Badal, whose Akali Dal had vociferously raised the issue in the run up to the Feb 13 assembly polls when the Congress was in power, Saturday said that his government was not pursuing a political vendetta against Amarinder Singh and other Congress leaders.

"But anyone who has done a wrong will be dealt with as per law. No one will be spared," he told reporters in Jalandhar.

Amarinder Singh had got corruption cases registered against Badal, his wife Surinder Kaur, MP son Sukhbir Badal and others after coming to power in 2002. Badal and his son were even arrested and sent to prison.

Vigilance officials said that they were also pursuing investigations against former media adviser to Amarinder Singh, B.I.S. Chahal, for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

(IANS)

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