Balasar (Sirsa), June 17
The Vigilance Bureau officials who raided the Balasar farms of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for the first time here today to search it on the direction of a Kharar-based court, returned empty-handed as it failed to find anything objectionable and incriminating against his nephew Mr Narottam Singh Dhillon, arrested in a corruption case.
A high-level team of vigilance officials comprising one SP-rank officer, three DSP-rank officers, two inspectors and more than 24 other police personnel, took three hours to search the farmhouse which yielded nothing incriminating. Three civil gazetted officials also accompanied the Vigilance Bureau team and participated in the search.
A large number of supporters of Mr Badal, who were present during this exercise started suspecting the intention of officials of Vigilance Bureau when they after searching the palatial farmhouse, started carrying out the assessment of amount spent on the construction of Balasar farms by Mr Badal and his family members. They alleged that Vigilance Bureau officials were here not to find anything incriminating against Mr Dhillon but to find the material which could enable them to fix Mr Badal and his family members.
In a written note given to Haryana Police authorities by the leader of Vigilance Bureau team, Mr Jagdish Singh Kahlon, after the search was over, it was mentioned that nothing objectionable and incriminating had been found during the search, which was conducted as per the order of the court. A Kharar-based court yesterday ordered in a search of Balasar farmhouse on the application of prosecution agency in which it was mentioned that Mr Dhillon had confessed that he had shifted all objectionable things to Balasar farms during his custodial interrogation.
The Vigilance Bureau team, which arrived at 11.30 a.m. at the farmhouse, was received by a heavy contingent of Haryana Police personnel and hundreds of supporters of Mr Badal, who had started descending on the farmhouse since last evening and were waiting for them since last night. Mr Manpreet Badal, MLA, Gidderbaha, first read the order of the Kharar-based
court issued in connection with the search of Balasar farmhouse of Mr Badal before he allowed them to enter into same. Mr Dhillon was not accompanying the team.
Mr Manpreet Badal, requested the Vigilance team not to make any attempt to plant any thing. Mr Jaspal Singh, one of the DSPs, offered that all members of the team should be checked thoroughly before they are allowed to carry out the search.
The Vigilance Bureau team came under pressure when they were taken aback after seeing the presence of large number of supporters of Mr Badal and police personnel belonging to Haryana state who had converted the entire area of the Balasar farmhouse into police cantonment. The team was accompanied by a police party from nearby Rania police station. Though a section of supporters of Mr Badal tried to raise slogans against the Congress government of Punjab, when the Vigilance Bureau team entered into the farmhouse, Mr Manpreet Badal stopped them from doing so. Before descending on the farmhouse, the Vigilance team had got the order of Kharar-based court endorsed from a Sirsa-based court.
During the search, the Vigilance Bureau officials searched bedroom of Mr Parkash Singh Badal, kitchen, bathrooms, stores, garages, guest rooms, main farm house building, each cupboard, metal almirahs, trunks, box beds and cattle sheds. They even counted the number of rooms and head of cattle in the farmhouse premises. The sleuths also broke some of the locks of trunks and cupboards, as they could not get the keys of these.
Though the entire search was videographed by the Vigilance Bureau team, the film was taken from them by the Haryana Police. However, the Vigilance Bureau team managed to click some still photographs of the farmhouse when the search was going on. Though the mediapersons were not allowed to enter the premises being searched by the Vigilance Bureau sleuths, a number of photographers did have some shots.
Mr Kahlon, who talked to mediapersons before leaving for Chandigarh, said that search was carried out as per the direction of the court. He added that nothing objectionable and incriminating against anyone had been found during the search.
When asked whether the search was aimed at finding anything objectionable against Mr Badal and his family members as Mr Dhillon, who could have pinpointed the spot where he had placed the incriminating things as confessed by him during custodial interrogation, was not brought here, he said that this was not true. When asked that how they could search a premises which did not belong to Mr Dhillon, Mr Kahlon kept silent.
Meanwhile, Mr Manpreet Badal alleged that today’s search of Balasar farmhouse was a move of the Congress government of Punjab to humiliate Mr Badal and his family members. He added that this action of the Congress government was uncalled for.
