M A I N   N E W S

PPSC SCAM
Ex-PCS officer nabbed
Former SSP Pherurai eludes arrest
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 11
The Patiala Vigilance Police conducted raids at many places in Chandigarh last night, including the residences of former PCS, DSP and other officers, who had got selected by bribing the then PPSC Chairman Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu and arrested former PCS officer Purshottam Singh Sodhi.

Raids were also conducted to nab former Ferozepore Senior Superintendent of Police Gurcharan Singh Pherurai whose son and daughter had been selected for the PPS and PCS, respectively, but he could not be arrested.

Sources disclosed that Sodhi had been arrested from his residence at Phase IX in Mohali last night and that he would be presented for police remand tomorrow. Sodhi was arrested in connection with FIR number 24 registered by the Vigilance Department in Patiala on April 30.

The raids were conducted on the basis of a list prepared by the Patiala Vigilance Bureau following disclosures made by former touts of Sidhu, the suspended PPSC Chairman, who have now become approvers in the case. The sources said those candidates who touts Randhir Singh Dheera and Prem Sagar had listed in their statements were being moved against. The raids are expected to continue. Teams of the Vigilance police have also been sent to places other than Chandigarh to arrest the candidates who had allegedly given bribes to get selected to various posts.

Though all Vigilance officials, including SP (Vigilance) Balkar Singh who is posted here, said they did not know anything about the raids, relatives of Sodhi who camped in front of the office of the Vigilance Department here, disclosed that Sodhi had been picked up from his Patiala residence by the Vigilance team.

Dheera had disclosed in his statement made under Section 161, CrPc, that he and another tout, Paramjit Singh Pamma, had facilitated the meeting of Sodhi and Bhupinder Singh with the suspended Chairman. Dheera had disclosed in his statement that both of them had been selected to the PCS (Allied) after they gave Rs 15 lakh each to Ravi Sidhu at his residence in the company of both Dheera and Pamma.

The sources said Paramjit Singh Sodhi, who had been functioning as District Revenue Officer at Fatehgarh Sahib, had been arrested red-handed by the Vigilance Department while accepting a bribe from one farmer with regard to a land dispute. The case is still on, the sources said, adding that the officer had gone on leave after being demoted to his old rank from the PCS.

Meanwhile, Punjab Vigilance Department sources disclosed that raids had been conducted at the residences of a former SSP, G. S. Pherurai, both in Chandigarh and Punjab.