COURT RESERVES ORDER ON PLEA OF FORMER SSP

LUDHIANA: A local court, on Thursday, reserved its order on a former SSP’s plea to hear him before accepting a closure report of the alleged ₹1,100-crore Ludhiana City Centre scam, in which Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, his son and son-in-law are among the accused.

The case, alleging that a private builder was favoured during Singh’s previous term as CM, was filed in 2007 when the SAD-BJP was in power. But last year, the state vigilance bureau had filed a closure report, saying its reinvestigation of the alleged ₹1,144crore scam found nothing to substantiate the charges against Singh, his son Raninder Singh, son-in-law Raminder Singh and 33 others.

In July, Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu, former SSP, vigilance, Ludhiana, had pleaded with the court to hear him before accepting the bureau's closure report. Sandhu had said as a key investigator in the case he was "privy to certain important facts", which he wanted to bring to the notice of the court.

Sandhu’s counsel argued that the former SSP was the main complainant in the case and, therefore, the court should hear him before accepting or rejecting the closure report. The court reserved its orders on the SSP’s application for August 24, his counsel said. Sandhu also moved another application in the trial court against the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), saying it could not "sail in two boats" at the same time.