Chandigarh, April 28
The Punjab Government’s crusade against corruption has suffered a major setback after serious allegations made by a senior member of the Haryana Judicial service against the Chairman of the newly appointed one-man inquiry commission have come to the notice of the state government.

Investigations reveal that an industrial unit — Sandeep Ceramics — at Bahadurgarh in Haryana — belonging to Sandeep Garg, the only son of Justice A.S. Garg, was taken over by the Haryana Financial Corporation after the loanee failed to repay the principal amount and interest touching Rs 2.4 crore.

Though the unit has been with the Haryana Financial Corporation (HFC) for more than two years now , it could not be auctioned even in spite of best efforts by the corporation. Since more than six attempts to auction the property to effect recovery have failed, the corporation is understood to have served a notice on Mr Sandeep Garg for the attachment of the collateral property — a house at Faridabad — the notice period of which expires next month.

Justice Garg was not available for comments.

Interestingly, an Additional District and Sessions Judge is believed to have sent a written communication to the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging that Justice A.S. Garg had been pressuring him to get the loan outstanding in the name of his son waived by the Haryana Chief Minister.

The Additional District and Sessions Judge claimed that since he was related to the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, as his son was married to the grand daughter of the Chief Minister, Justice Garg opted to be the inspecting Judge of the Hisar Sessions Division, where he was posted, so that he could use his position to put pressure on him to get the loan of his son waived.

Sandeep Garg had taken a loan of Rs 80 lakh from the HFC by mortgaging the Faridabad house of his father. Since the unit unfortunately did not work well, the dues started mounting and they crossed the Rs 2 crore mark before the corporation took it over to dispose it of as a sick unit to recover its money.

The unit was offered benefits under the RBI scheme for sick units by which a major portion of the loan would have been written off. Instead, the Gargs allegedly preferred to get the entire amount waived.

At one stage, the unit was auctioned for Rs 1.2 crore and the bidder did deposit earnest money of Rs 12 lakh. Since he did not return to make the remaining mandatory payment, the earnest money was forfeited and credited to the account of the loanee.

The Additional District and Sessions Judge said besides pressing him to get the entire loan waived, he was also pressured to get a new industrial plot allotted in the name of a relative as the family members being defaulters could not get any plot allotted. He alleged that pressure was also put on him to get the mortgaged house freed from the HFC.