Court rejects VB’s cancellation report, orders further probe

MOHALI: A local court on Thursday rejected the cancellation report in the alleged Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) scam case, in which Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and 17 others were named as accused, and directed the Vigilance Bureau to further investigate the matter.

In the report, the investigative agency had given a clean chit to Amarinder, who was present in the Thursday hearing, and 17 others (of whom three have died) in the case.

In a brief hearing, Jaswinder Singh, judge, special court (vigilance) pointed out, “From the perusal of the cancellation report, it looks that it has been prepared in haste.” The case is now listed for November 6.

“This cancellation report was filed about a year back when the SAD-BJP alliance was in power and not the Congress. We have nothing to do with it. Law will take its own course,” Amarinder said.

A court in Haryana on Thursday deferred its verdict on two criminal cases slapped against self-styled godman Rampal till August 29 in view of the verdict in a rape case against Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on Friday.

A decision by judicial magistrate Mukesh Kumar, who is posted in Hisar, came on the plea of police, citing the ongoing high alert in the state in view of the verdict on Friday in a case against Ram Rahim by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Panchkula.

Rampal was arrested from his fortified Satlok Ashram near Barwala in Hisar in 2014.

At least six persons had lost their lives in the stand-off as Rampal eluded the police, while many of his key aides and around 450 supporters were also arrested.

The death of five women and an infant occurred during a stand-off and violent clashes that erupted between the controversial sect leader’s followers and the security forces. The sect followers fired at police, lobbed petrol bombs and acid pouches, besides hurling stones outside the ashram, clearly indicating the sect was well prepared to resist the security forces. IANS