Ludhiana: Court rejects Vigilance Bureau's closure report in road scam

Ludhiana, April 6

The Court of Additional Sessions Judge Ajit Atri has declined the request of the Vigilance Bureau to accept the closure report giving a clean chit to all accused in the alleged multi-crore four-laning project of the Hoshiarpur-Jalandhar highway.

The court has also ordered the VB to conduct further investigation into the case. The VB had given a clean chit to the then SDM Anand Sagar Sharma (nodal officer for land acquisition), Hoshiarpur market committee chairman Avtar Singh Johal, councillor Harpinder Gill, district co-operative bank chairman Satwinder Pal Singh Dhatt, Devi Ram, Parteek Gupta and others in its closure report filed in June 2019.

A week before the filing of closure report, the ED had filed a chargesheet in a Jalandhar court against six accused on the charges of indulging in money laundering pertaining to this alleged scam.

According to the FIR, an extra amount of Rs 23.19 crore was paid in only two villages where Akali leaders and land sharks purchased the notified land, in the names of their kin, at throwaway prices. —