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CBI seeks sanction to prosecute Thakur

New Delhi, September 4
The CBI has sought sanction for the prosecution of former Union Health Minister C.P. Thakur from the Centre for his alleged involvement in the abuse of his official position to allot a shop in a medical institute in Chandigarh.

After completing investigations, the agency approached the Centre through the Department of Personnel for sanction to prosecute Mr Thakur, CBI sources said.

It filed a preliminary enquiry (PE) and later a regular case in which it alleged that in spite of the expiration of the shop’s lease in 1977, he “illegally” allowed Capt Parminder Singh to continue to occupy the shop at the PGI at the 1970 rent of Rs 360.

The FIR also alleges that Mr Thakur formed a three-member committee in 1998 to legitimise the tender process, but favoured Capt Parminder Singh even though two of its members had expressed their opinion against it.

Although the PGI authorities realised it late, they called for fresh bidding for renting out the shop in the same year, Mr Thakur constituted a three-member committee to take a decision on the matter — a move that raised many eyebrows.

The committee chairman favoured the allotment of the shop to Capt Parminder Singh again, but two other members opposed it, the sources said.

Curiously, Mr Thakur went ahead with the suggestion of the committee chairman and directed that the shop be reallotted to him and at a rent of Rs 59,890, which other shop owners in the neighbourhood were paying.

Sources, however, said the rent was lower than what should have been levied because the size of the chemist shop run by him was bigger than those compared with the adjoining ones.

A PIL was also filed in Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging the former minister’s decision. The court had also directed quashing of the lease and initiating fresh public auction. — PTI