Former Punjab minister Manpreet Badal moves High Court for anticipatory bail in corruption case

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, October 11

Punjab’s former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal on Wednesday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court for anticipatory bail in a corruption case after contending that the matter was a result of “apparent malafide and ulterior motives of an inimical head of the State”.

In his petition filed through advocate Arshdeep Singh Cheema, Badal contended he was being targeted and entangled in the inquiry/ investigation due to the State Chief Minister’s political intervention. The CM declared publicly that he would fix the petitioner in a criminal case and made a press statement that an FIR against the petitioner had already been registered and he would be arrested soon. The statement was made much before the FIR’s registration.

“The present FIR is one of the links in the chain, that the present AAP government in State of Punjab is trying to fasten around all the person, be it political leaders, people closely associated with them or common person who in some way are/were connected or close to the previous government regime,” the petition read.

Referring to the allegations, Cheema submitted it was alleged in the FIR that the petitioner used his position and power to influence the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) to firstly put up the plots for auction in 2021 at a lower rate. It was also alleged that the public was restrained from joining the auction process by not uploading the site plans.

It was further alleged that the confidants of the petitioner, having exclusive knowledge of the details of the site, participated in the auction and were successful in getting the plots almost at the reserve price, thereby causing loss to the state exchequer.

“It is imperative to bring to the notice of this court that it was an e-auction, which was open to the entire world and it was not possible for anyone to prevent any bidder from taking part in the auction process. The reserve price of the plot was fixed at Rs 29900 per square metre and the same was purchased by two people at the price of Rs 30348.5 per square metre. These plots were later purchased by the petitioner by paying premium over the price to the original allottees and paid the stamp duty of about Rs 25 lakh to the State exchequer. The money received from the sale of the flat of the petitioner was used to purchase these plots,” it was added.