RANA GURJIT DIGGING HIS OWN GRAVE: SAD

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday accused CM Captain Amarinder Singh of attempting to give clean chit to his cabinet colleague Rana Gurjit Singh by appointing the minister’s “personal favourite” to head the one-man commission.

The inquiry has been handed over to justice JS Narang (retd), who would submit his report within a month.

SAD MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa claimed Rana enjoyed “close relations” with justice Narang. “It is now clear that Rana called on Amarinder on Tuesday to suggest an appointment of a friendly commission which would exonerate him of the charges of corruption and “benami” transactions in acquisition of sand and gravel mines through e-auction recently,” he said.

The Akali leader said Rana was digging his own grave by putting up new front men to escape the long arm of the law. Earlier, Rana had put up his cook Amit Bahadur who successfully bid ₹26 crore for a sand mine besides three other employees who together made bids of ₹50 crore, he alleged. Now, Rana has put up the name of a son of a “businessman friend” — Capt JS Randhawa and claimed that his companies put up the money for the bids and that his cook and employees were working partners only in these companies, he alleged.

“In such a situation how can anyone believe Rana’s contentions? This is a clear case of benami transactions. What needs to be probed is the source of the money, the money trail and verification of hawala transactions if any. All these are specialised jobs which only the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or income tax authorities are equipped to do”, he added.