Amarinder asked me to sign affidavit to bail him out of Amritsar land scam: Bir Devinder
Claims he was offered minister’s post by Capt on becoming CM and latter’s aide Bharat Inder Chahal told him that Ghanaur rally can be cancelled overnight if he gave favourable statement to vigilance DIG in the case
PATIALA: The war of words between Punjab Cong ress chief Captain Amarinder Singh and party’s senior leader Bir Devinder Singh, who resigned from the post of party’s media panel coordinator on Wednesday, has opened a can of worms on the Amritsar Improvement Trust land scam case, in which Amarinder, who was the chief minister then, is an accused.
Alleging blackmail by Amarinder, Bir Devinder has made startling revelations claiming that the former offered him a “quid-pro-quo” (a minister’s post after he becomes the chief minister) soon after winning the Lok Sabha election against Arun Jaitley from Amritsar. “Amarinder had called me to his Moti Bagh Palace to thank me for helping him in the Amritsar elections. Former Punjab finance minister Surinder Singla was also present. After a round of drinks, two Supreme Court lawyers, Atul Nanda and his wife, joined us and Amarinder asked me to sign an affidavit. I was shocked to read it. It negated all that I have said on the case before the special committee of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. It was my starred question on which the whole case was based and the affidavit wanted me to admit that it was all based on misrepresentation of facts and Amarinder never met or called me to settle the case as the CM. I told Amarinder that cannot sign it as it will amount to perjury and I, who has been honoured as a best parliamentarian and have presided over the House as a deputy speaker, could not undermine the dignity of the House,” Bir Devinder told HT in an exclusive interview.
The former deputy speaker said he started getting summons from DIG vigilance Rajinder Singh to give his statement after the Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered reinvestigation into the case on December 22, 2014, on a petition moved by Amarinder’s counsel. After many calls, the DIG later sent an SMS to Bir Devinder on September 9, 2015, asking him to fix a date for the statement saying a report had to be submitted in the HC.
“After I got the message of the vigilance DIG for recording my statement, I tried to contact Amarinder but could not. Later, through his close aide, I delivered the message and got a call. Amarinder asked me not to give any statement to the vigilance till he spoke to his lawyers. Amarinder’s close aide Bharat Inder Singh Chahal then came into the picture. He visited my house in February and requested me to end the case, asking me to give a favourable statement. Chahal told me we would fix the date and time with the vigilance DIG, who was in constant touch with him (Chahal). He later made me speak to Amarinder on the phone. But I told Chahal that I will not give any statement without meeting Amarinder. Later on February 14, Chahal invited me to his house where he produced a written statement, asking me to sign it. He told me a meeting with Amarinder was possible only after I gave the statement. I refused to sign the statement and took it from him. He asked me to return it and I did so to avoid a scuffle,” Bir Devinder said.
The two- time MLA and former deputy speaker did not receive the summons on February 29 this year, when a vigilance inspector came to his residence in Patiala to deliver them asking him to appear for recording his statement at the Punjab vigilance bureau headquarters in Chandigarh on March 4. Bir Devinder did not accept the summons saying, he needed to see the HC judgment that had ordered the reinvestigation. It is no co-incidence, says Bir Devinder, that the Ghanaur rally of Madan Lal Jalalpur was announced for March 7.
“Chahal called me up in first week of March saying how will I get a ticket to contest elections if I did not give the statement in Amarinder’s favour. He said the rally can be cancelled even overnight. I told him I will not give in to such blackmail and why was the meeting being linked to the case. I did not know the wires of the case were linked to the CM when I had raised the issue in the Punjab assembly against then local bodies minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh,” Bir Devinder said.
Amarinder called me to his Moti Bagh Palace and asked me to sign an affidavit which negated all that I have said on the Amritsar land scam case. I refused to sign it. BIR DEVINDER SINGH, senior Congress leader Bir Devinder was eyeing the Ghanaur seat, which I had refused to allot to him. I don’t remember calling him to Moti Bagh Palace and I never asked him to sign any affidavit. CAPTAIN AMARINDER SINGH, state Congress chief