Convicted of fraud, CKD chief Santokh Singh resigns
AMRITSAR : A day after being convicted in a 12-year-old case of land fraud by the court chief judicial magistrate (CJM) here, Dr Santokh Singh resigned as the head of socio-religious organisation Chief Khalsa Diwan (CKD) on Saturday.
The executive committee that met at the gurdwara on the premises of CKD headquarters here unanimously accepted his resignation and appointed a five-member committee to manage affairs of the organisation that runs over 50 educational institutions in Punjab, besides orphanages and hospitals. Santokh Singh was elected president of the CKD on March 25 this year after Charanjit Singh Chadha resigned on the Akal Takht’s directions.
However, Santokh Singh, who was sentenced to five-year jail and fined ₹40,000 on Friday, is still the member as the executive committee did not discuss the issue. “The issue of his membership will be included in the next executive meet which would be
held after around 10 days,” said Narinder Singh Khurana, honorary secretary.
The five-member care-taking committee comprises Dhanraj Singh, Sarabjit Singh (both vice presidents), Narinder Singh Khurana and Surinder Singh Rumalian Wale (both honorary secretaries) and Nirmal Singh (resident president).
“This committee has been constituted to manage day-to-day affairs of the institutions running under the CKD for two months.
As tenure of general house of the CKD is ending in February next year, we have decided to not conduct separate election for the post of president and will go for elections after two months,” said Khurana.
The meeting of the 24-member executive committee was followed by general house, which endorsed the resolutions passed earlier in the day. In the 513-member general house of the 115-yearold organisation, only around 125 members turned up.