Chandigarh, June 5
The Governor of Punjab, Lt-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), today suspended Punjab Public Service Commission Chairman Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu.
The Punjab Chief Secretary, Mr Y.S. Ratra, said that the Governor exercised his powers under Clause 2 of Article 317 of the Constitution to suspend him.
Earlier, the President of India, on the recommendation of the Governor of Punjab and in exercise of the powers under Clause I of Article 317 of the Constitution made a reference to the Supreme Court for an inquiry and report in accordance with the procedure prescribed under Article 145 of the Constitution after satisfying himself that a prima facie case for an inquiry into all charges levelled against Sidhu existed.
Sidhu landed in the vigilance net on March 25 while allegedly accepting illegal gratification of Rs 5 lakh from Excise Inspector Bhupjit Singh for his selection to the PCS (Executive Branch) position.
At present, he is lodged in Patiala jail facing conviction in various cases, including one registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act and another for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. The Vigilance Bureau has also registered a separate case encompassing all recruitments made by the PPSC during his tenure as Chairman.
Besides Sidhu, others in jail include some of his known “touts”, including Jagman Singh, Randhir Singh Gill, alias Dheera, Surinder Kaur Manchanda, Paramjit Singh, alias Pamma, and Prem Sagar.
A few other suspects in the case, including Shamsher Singh, a pharmacist of the Animal Husbandry Department, banker G.S. Manchanda and Pritpal Kaur (mother of Sidhu) are still evading arrest.
During the investigations in the case, Jagman Singh, who turned approver in the Prevention of Corruption Act case against Sidhu, spilled the beans about bank lockers and accounts belonging to Sidhu’s kin. While the lockers yielded cash totalling over Rs 8 crore, an amount of about Rs 6 crore was detected in the bank accounts.
The lockers belonged to Pritpal Kaur (mother of Sidhu), Reetinderpal Singh Sidhu and Ajinder Kaur (brother and sister-in-law of Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu). All three are now suspected to be in the USA.
It was Randhir Singh Gill, who made a supplementary statement under Section 164 of the Cr PC in the recruitment scam, revealing the names of “tainted” officers who got premier jobs through either bribe or “sifarish”.
Subsequently, the Punjab Government removed the entire 1999 batch of the PCS (Executive
Branch).
