VB assesses value of Chahal’s marriage hall
PATIALA A team of Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) on Friday raided luxury ‘Alcazar’, a marriage palace of Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, former adviser to then Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh at Patiala in connection with the disproportionate assets case.
The luxury palace is located at Patiala- Sirhind road. During the raid, the VB conducted measurement of the palace.The officials said that the raid and assessment of the palace is the part of the disproportionate assets case. The bureau has started this an enquiry against BIS Chahal for allegedly having disproportionate assets more than the income, few months ago.
During the assessment, the technical team of bureau found that the palace spread in around 4.5 acre is a replica of a palace located in Dubai. The place is equipped with expensive paintings, chandeliers, plants such as palm trees, extra ordinary false ceilings and luxury furniture.
An official of the VB said that the covered area on the ground floor of the palace is 45000 square feet wherein a lobby and two bedrooms have also been constructed at ground floor. Besides, the covered area on the first floor of palace is 4500 square feet, housing a conference hall, manager room, main office of managing director and owner. Three servant rooms are also on first floor.
He further informed that there are 8 chandeliers in the palace with each one having an average price ranging between ₹4 to ₹5 lakhs. The palace also has conference hall, bedroom, servant rooms and lobby.
According the VB, the booking price of palace is between ₹ 7 to ₹8 lakh, which is much higher than the other normal marriage place as the other normal palace is charged around ₹3 lakh.
The teams reached around 11am and remained at the palace till around 4pm. The officials said that BIS Chahal was earlier summoned twice by the bureau for questioning, but he never appeared.
Apart from the marriage palace, the bureau had also conducted raids at various properties of BIS Chahal in December last year.Chahal was media adviser to former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh during his term from 2002 to 2007 and political adviser from 2017 to 2021.