Captain gets clean chit in Amritsar land scam case

MOHALI: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and 17 others were cleared of all charges in the Amritsar Improvement Trust (AIT) scam by a Mohali court on Friday.

The charges were dismissed on the basis of a report filed by the state’s Vigilance Bureau (VB) which gave all the accused a clean chit.

The VB had filed booked Amarinder and 17 others in 2008 after the Vidhan Sabha recommended it, alleging that a 32.1 acre piece of prime land belonging to the AIT, had been granted to a private realtor. The bureau booked them 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 (IPC). They were also booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

However, the charges were never framed.

A 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.

The VB had then filed a cancellation report in the special court in October 2016 after investigation as directed by the Punjab and Haryana high court.

It also sought the discharge of all the accused.

In a brief order, additional district and sessions judge, special court (vigilance), Jaswinder Singh, pronounced: “After hearing arguments, the court is of the opinion that the second investigation has been conducted properly, and the cancellation filed the second time is accepted.”

The order was pronounced in the presence of the CM and 15 of the accused. Three of the accused died during the course of investigation.

“I was targeted due to a political vendetta but there are so many others who suffered for 10 years, this shouldn’t have happened,” said Amarinder.