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Tuesday,
July 1, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Vigilance men swoop on Badal’s showroom Chandigarh, June 30 It was the second search-cum-assessment exercise conducted by the bureau after obtaining from a Kharar court on June 27 the warrants of search of 16 properties owned, shared or used by the former Chief Minister and President of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, or other members of his family. “We are not here to look for anything incriminating but to assess the value of this commercial property,” said vigilance officials supervising the operation. The team, led by Mr Gurmukh Singh, DSP, was accompanied by a battery of civil engineers, architects, surveyors and assessors. The search continued until late in the evening. “The Vigilance Bureau is conducting itself in a totally unprofessional way,”
remarked Mr Manpreet Singh Badal, MLA, and a nephew of Mr Parkash Singh Badal, holding that all details, including the building plans were available with the Estate Office of the Chandigarh
Administration. He was present at the complex when the vigilance men, accompanied by the
Chandigarh police, quietly arrived there shortly after 4 p.m. “They are here to play to the media in their endeavour to harass us and bring discredit to the Shiromani Akali Dal. This property was purchased in a public auction in 1993 and Mr Parkash Singh Badal and his family has a 25 per cent share in it. The building was completed in 1996-97 and then was rented out to banks and a few other private
parties. The entire record of the property was available in the Estate Office here. “Though the search by the Vigilance Bureau caused inconvenience to our tenants we explained to them the position and they cooperated. Had they told us what they wanted to know about this building, we could have supplied them with all drawings, building plans and other details.” This was the second search after the registration of a case against the Badals at SAS Nagar on June 24 and the fourth in all. Earlier, the Vigilance Bureau had conducted searches at the Balasar farmhouse of the Badals and also at his native place in Badal village in Muktsar district in the Hardeep Singh case “nothing incriminating was found there”. “They have time till July 20 to continue their search-cum-assessment or harassment operation. It is a classic case of political vendetta,”
remarked Mr Badal after a meeting of the Political Affairs Committee of the dal. He maintained no prior information was given to him about this search operation. |
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TRIBUNE
EXCLUSIVE Chandigarh, June 30 If one scans the FIR, one gets the answer in the negative. In fact, the FIR, copies of which should have been available in the court of the Ilaqa Magistrate, has become an elusive document. Mr D.S. Mahal, counsel, who moved an application in the court of the Ilaqa Magistrate, Kharar, to obtain a copy of the FIR, was directed to approach the Special Court at Ropar for the same. There he was asked to contact the District Attorney. He, however, could not get the copy. Interestingly, a letter written by Mr Balwant Singh of Daleva village in Mansa district to the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, demanding an enquiry into movable and immovable assets amassed by the Badals disproportionate to their known sources of income was ordered to be registered as an FIR by the Chief Director of the Vigilance Bureau, Mr A.P. Pandey. Mr Balwant Singh, who was appointed Director of the Punjab Land Reclamation and Development Corporation on June 19, is a son of a former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee member, Mr Sukhdev Singh. Mr Balwant Singh had in his letter, a copy of which was endorsed to the Chief Director of the Vigilance Bureau, alleged that Mr Parkash Singh Badal, who remained Chief Minister of Punjab from 1997 to 2002, in connivance with his son, Sukhbir; wife, Surinder Kaur; some other family members besides friends Mr Kanwaljit Singh Sidhu, Mr Narottam Singh Dhillon, Mr Ashish Kapoor and Mr Krishan Kumar (personal assistant to Sukhbir Singh Badal) and by misusing their position and with corrupt means have collected huge amounts of black money. By using this illgotten money, they have made movable and immovable property in the country and abroad. He held that there was several other movable and immovable property owned by them which can be known through proper investigations. He maintained that Mr Parkash Singh Badal, by misusing his position, put his favourites at high positions and charged money for ordering transfers, postings and even for making appointments and got commission while awarding contracts to big companies. Bogus companies were floated and big amounts were transferred to Orbit Resorts. Mr Badal has put huge amounts of black money in banks and lockers both in India and abroad. The property so amassed was worth several hundred crores. When he came to politics in 1962-63, Mr Badal had only 314 kanals of land, the value of which was only Rs 70,000 to 80,000. He requested the Chief Minister to get his complaint investigated and punish the guilty. The endorsement of the letter says that it was received in the office of the Chief Director of Vigilance on June 24 after which vide endorsement No 327/R/CDVB it was sent for registration of a case under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 13(1)(d)(e) read with 13(2) 88 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Interestingly, after the registration of the case on June 24 and made public on June 26, the Superintendent of Police (Vigilance Cell), Mr Surinder Pal Singh, asked for the investigation of the case and moved 13 applications in the court of the Ilaqa Magistrate on June 27 for search and assessment of 16 assets believed to be owned, shared and used by the Badals. The Vigilance Bureau had intriguingly requested for the assessment of both House No 50, Sector 2 (official residence of the Leader of the Opposition) and H. No 12 Safdarjung Road, New Delhi (official residence of Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal). In all the applications, it was stated that “black money” had been concealed in the assets as they needed to be urgently searched and assessed. Even after four days of obtaining search warrants, the Vigilance men have not recovered any black money from the two assets. |
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