7-yr jail, Rs 75-lakh fine for Ravi Sidhu

Pavneet Singh Chadha

Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 15

A special court today sentenced former Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) Chairman Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu, alias Ravi Sidhu, to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case.

Sidhu was held guilty under Sections 13 (1) (e) (disproportionate assets) and 13 (2) (criminal misconduct) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 75 lakh. In case he defaults, Sidhu will have to serve another year of rigorous imprisonment.

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After the verdict, Sidhu bowed his head and stared at the courtroom floor.

On January 10, Sidhu was convicted of corruption in a case filed by the Vigilance Bureau in Mohali on March 25, 2002, against Sidhu and others. The court had acquitted five others — Randhir Singh Gill, Prem Sagar, Gurdip Singh, Surinder Kaur and Paramjit Singh — for lack of evidence.

It was alleged that during his tenure as PPSC Chairman, Sidhu and his colleagues accepted bribes to appoint inspectors in the Excise and Taxation Department.

Singh was accused of having sent Rs 1.36 crore through hawala out of the country, besides forging a will and having bank lockers under false names. The Vigilance Bureau had seized Rs 8.30 crore from several lockers after the registration of a case against him. 

In 2015, a Patiala court had sentenced Sidhu to seven-year rigorous imprisonment in connection with the 2002 cash-for-job scam.