Jalandhar, November 8
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has finalised the challan against the former Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, for having assets disproportionate to his known income sources. The challan would be submitted in the court by the bureau sometime next week.
Meanwhile, the bureau has written to the Punjab Technical University Vice-Chancellor to take action against 95 employees of the PTU who were illegally recruited by the then VC, Dr H.S. Gurm, and the then Technical Education Minister, Mr Jagdish Singh Garcha.
This was stated by the Vigilance Bureau’s Director, Mr A.P. Pandey, who was here for some function today.
Mr Pandey said the bureau had ample evidence to substantiate charges against Mr Badal in the court and that the challan pertaining to this would be filed in the court next week. He, however, refused to give details of amount of property owned by Badals and said, “I won’t do that and everything will be clear when the charge sheet is filed in the court.”
Mr Pandey denied that the bureau had any dispute with a Delhi-based firm of evaluators associated with the bureau for evaluation. “The firm was not engaged as we found that they were just insurance evaluators and this did not suit our needs. It is rubbish and baseless. How come the question of fee arises when the company was never engaged,” said Mr Pandey.
Talking about the issuance of a red-corner notice against Mr Badal, the bureau Director said it was the prerogative of the investigating officer to issue such a notice against an accused without considering who he or she was. Justifying the notice, particularly, in the wake of no chance of Mr Badal’s leaving the country due to the Z-plus security being enjoyed by him, Mr Pandey said there were some instances like that of Mr Kishan Kumar, a co-accused in the case, who had managed to leave the country.
Referring to the PTU employees’ case, Mr Pandey said the university should sack the employees as their appointments were found to be illegal in the probe conducted by the bureau. He said the bureau had the power to make its recommendation for sacking of employees as it had conducted the probe into the case.
Asked that the PTU was planning to regularise all such employees, Mr Pandey said the bureau had completed its duty and if the PTU did not work in accordance with the probe findings, then the bureau would take up the matter at an appropriate
level.
