Chandigarh, Jun 28 (PTI) The Punjab Police has filed a closure report in a corruption case against former health minister Vijay Singla, three years after he was arrested and sacked from the state cabinet.
Opposition parties targeted the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over the closure report, accusing it of giving a “clean chit” to one of its own MLAs.
Singla and his officer on special duty (OSD), Pardeep Kumar, were booked under the relevant sections of the Punjab Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 following a complaint submitted by Superintending Engineer Rajinder Singh, who was posted in the Punjab Health System Corporation in May 2022.
The complainant had alleged that he was asked to pay a bribe for the allotment of construction projects.
Police recently filed the closure report in the matter in a court in Mohali.
In a statement to the court, the complainant said he agreed with the investigation report and added that he had no objection if the closure report was accepted.
The court will take up the matter on July 14.
The complainant had alleged that he was asked to pay Rs 1.16 crore as bribe for the allotment of projects worth Rs 58 crore.
At that time, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had himself announced Singla’s removal from the cabinet, which was sworn in just two months after the AAP stormed to power in the state, riding on the agenda of corruption-free governance and other poll promises.
Mann had said Singla had admitted to his wrongdoings.
AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had lauded Mann for his decision to remove Singla from the cabinet.
According to the complainant, he was threatened that his career would be ruined. He had said that he eventually agreed to pay Rs 5 lakh to avoid the “mental harassment”.
Singla, a dental surgeon, was elected to the Assembly from Mansa in 2022, defeating Punjabi singer and Congress candidate Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, also known as Sidhu Moosewala.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa slammed the Mann government, accusing the chief minister of turning governance into a “stage for theatrics” and alleging that police gave a “clean chit” to Singla in the corruption case.
“In 2022, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann made a grand spectacle of sacking his own minister, Vijay Singla, claiming that he was taking commissions,” the Congress leader said.
“He released a dramatic video, declaring, ‘No one else knows, I am taking strict action’, as though he was delivering a script, not leading a government,” Bajwa said in a statement.
“What was this entire exercise then? Just a scripted drama to grab headlines? Did the chief minister use his own party colleague just to build a false narrative of zero tolerance?” he asked.
Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal too hit out at Mann over the closure report in the case against Singla.
“It is incumbent on chief minister @BhagwantMann to tell Punjabis what happened to the evidence on the basis of which he had dismissed Vijay Singla from the cabinet besides getting a corruption case registered against him.
“The CM had also claimed that the minister had admitted his guilt before him. Now it seems the @AamAadmiParty Delhi lobby has forced the investigating agencies to give a clean chit to Vijay Singla,” Badal said in a post on X.
“The AAP govt has proved that it cannot proceed against one of its own even as it is launching a witch hunt against the opposition. This case needs to be transferred out of the state and probed by an independent agency to ensure justice is served,” he added. PTI CHS VSD RC
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