Ex-minister, journalist arrested by Punjab vigilance in corruption case coinciding on Rahul Gandhi’s visit
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
In an early morning operation, the state’s Vigilance Bureau (VB) has arrested senior Congress leader and former minister, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, in a corruption case, on the day when its party supremo Rahul Gandhi is coming to Punjab. He had served as minister for forest and social welfare department in the cabinet of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh. Along with him, a Khanna based journalist, Kamaljit Singh, who was allegedly working as an aide, was also arrested.
As per sources vigilance got the green signal given last night from the chief minister who stressed that when he can “ensure arrest of his own cabinet minister (Vijay Singla), no one should be spared for corruption”.
As per Punjab Vigilance Bureau official , both the people were held under charges of corruption. The bureau had collected many proofs against the ex minister when they last week arrested a divisional forest officer, Gurnampreet Singh, and another individual, Harminder Singh Hummi, who is said to have paid huge bribes to Dharamsot via Kamaljit Singh (Journalist) .
A yet to confirm, they were held on the complaint of Davinder Singh Sandhu and his father Baljit Singh Sandhu, who own around 100 acres of land in the name of their company — WWICS Estate Private Limited — at Masaul and Tanda villages in Mohali. A portion of the land comes under section 4 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900. A complaint was lodged by Mohali Range Officer Ranjodh Singh against Baljit Singh Sandhu on the charges of violating the Punjab Land Preservation Act in a project. Ranjodh Singh said the complaint was lodged at the behest of DFO Gurmanpreet Singh and Conservator of Forests Vishal Chauhan.
“Vigilance Bureau had caught some forest officers of Mohali on charges of bribery. He told during interrogation that Dharamsot used to take a bribe of Rs 500 for cutting a tree. Apart from this, bribes were also taken for planting new trees. The part of which also went directly to the then minister Dharamsot. Based on this inquiry, Dharamsot was arrested by the Vigilance Bureau. Dharamsot is now being brought to Mohali, where he will be questioned further. However, there was ample evidence of his involvement in corruption in the forest and social welfare departments”, sources said.
Pertinently, Sadhu was indicted in a scholarship scam. Sadhu, who was also allegedly involved in the Post Matric Scholarship scam during his tenure as Social Security Minister.There were allegations that scholarship money was wrongly given to private colleges and universities. There was a lot of uproar about this. Despite this, the then Captain Government gave a clean chit to Dharamsot, despite he was indicated by an IAS officer, Kirpa Shankar Saroj, during Captain Amarinder’s tenure’.
Ex-minister, journalist arrested by Punjab vigilance in corruption case coinciding on Rahul Gandhi’s visit. The action also comes a week after the chief minister removed IPS officer Ishwar Singh from the Vigilance Bureau and posted another officer – ADGP Virinder Kumar- as the chief director.
Known for his performance, Verinder had served as the state intelligence head during Amarinder Singh’s tenure and had made a dossier of corruption of MLAs and ministers, but the Congress government didn’t act, it has been claimed.
June 7,2022
