No evidence to frame charges against Capt, 30 others: Court

LUDHIANA: In a 211-page judgment of the alleged ₹1,144-crore Ludhiana City Centre scam, the court of sessions judge Gurbir Singh said there was no iota of evidence to frame charges against the accused, including chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh, and also there is no evidence that Today Homes was given special benefits.

“The recovery of a pen drive from Chetan Gupta and its authenticity has not been established. The entries in the pen drive are equivalent to entries in the book of account. In the absence of corroborating and independent evidence, the entries in the pen drive are not admissible,” reads the judgment.

On November 27, the Ludhiana court discharged Amarinder, his son Raninder Singh and 29 others in the Ludhiana City Centre case in which it was alleged that a private realty firm Today Homes and Infrastructure Private Limited was given undue benefits of ₹1,144 crore during Amarinder’s previous term as CM in 2005-06.

An FIR was registered by vigilance bureau against accused under Prevention of Corruption Act in March 2007 when SADBJP came to power. In August 2017, after Congress returned to power, the vigilance bureau did a U-turn and filed a cancellation report in the court, saying there was no scam and all accused were innocent.

Observing that there is no evidence of any bribe paid to any accused, the judgment says that it cannot be said that on May 10, 2005, and May 11, 2005, any amount was paid to accused Kamal Verma, Gurdial Kaur Khangoora, Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) chairman Paramjit Singh Sibia, superintendent engineer Manmohan Singh and former local bodies minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh (now dead). It is also not established that any attempt was made to bribe another accused RD Awasthi. There is no evidence that in 2005, heavy amount of illegal gratification was given to Amarinder, reads the judgment.

In its initial probe, the vigilance bureau claimed that a pen drive was recovered from another accused Chetan Gupta of Delhi, which allegedly contained ‘hawala’ transaction details of ₹21 crore credited by Today Homes in the accounts of Amarinder and his son Raninder.

However, the judgment says that in the absence of corroborating evidence, the entries in the pen drive are not admissible and liability of any person cannot be fixed on the basis of such entries. On the basis of entries in the pen drive, assessing officer, income tax department added Amarinder’s and Raninder’s income. The orders of assessing authority regarding addition of income were set aside by higher authorities of the income tax department. It is not established that Amarinder and Raninder were having any deposit with the companies of Chetan Gupta, reads the judgment.

Vigilance had also alleged that Amarinder removed then LIT chairman Ashok Garcha because he had smelled the rat and had refused to be a part of the conspiracy and so Amarinder wanted to fit in his close aide Paramjit Singh Sibia (now dead) as the LIT chairman.

On this, the judgment says: “It is not established that there was any mala fide on the part of the government in removal of Garcha as LIT chairman.”

ON NOV 27, THE COURT DISCHARGED AMARINDER, HIS SON RANINDER AND 29 OTHERS IN LUDHIANA CITY CENTRE CASE