Capt Amarinder gets a clean chit
After three investigations and 500 hearings spread over 10 long years, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and 17 others were finally cleared of all the charges in the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) scam after the Mohali court on Friday accepted the Vigilance Bureau report giving all the accused a clean chit.
The case was registered by the VB following the recommendation of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, alleging a scam in granting exemptions for the transfer of 32.1-acre land belonging to the Amritsar Improvement Trust to a private realtor.
In a brief order, Jaswinder Singh, additional district and session judge, special court (vigilance) pronounced, “After hearing all the arguments, the court is of the opinion that the second investigation has been conducted properly, and the cancellation filed the second time is accepted by the court.”
The order was pronounced in the presence of Capt Amarinder and 15 accused. Three accused, including former Punjab assembly speaker Kewal Krishan and ministers Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and Raghunath Sahai Puri, passed away during the course of the case.
“I was targeted due to political vendetta but there are so many others who suffered for 10 years, this shouldn’t have happened,” said Amarinder. He added, “This cancellation report was filed when the SAD-BJP alliance was in power and not the Congress. We have nothing to do with it. Truth has prevailed.”
His counsel, senior advocate APS Deol, said, “Our faith in judiciary stands redeemed today. Law has taken its course and truth has prevailed. It was a politically motivated case and this final order lays all controversies to rest.”
It was in September 2008 that Amarinder and 17 others were booked by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The accused were also booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The challan, filed in February 2009, charged the 18 accused with involvement in the alleged scam that caused a loss of ₹360 crore to the state exchequer. However, the charges were never framed.
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