Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register a First Information Report (FIR) and investigate allegations of corruption against officials and private individuals operating around the Punjab Chief Minister’s Office.
The order came in a judgment delivered Monday in a case filed as a public interest litigation (PIL) by high court advocate Nikhil Saraf. Saraf had contended that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had investigated allegations of corruption by one Nitin Gohal who acted as an intermediary between people seeking government favours and Rajbir Singh Ghuman, an Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The 66-page judgement by Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor concluded that, prima facie, the allegations relate to cognisable offences involving an important public office, and that the state police response to the material provided by the ED was inadequate. The CBI has been asked to submit a report within two months, with the next hearing on 7 December.
The allegations related to transfers and postings of officials, access to confidential government documents, government tenders, policy decisions, arms licences, land-related approvals and other official favours. However, despite the ED providing adequate evidence to the Punjab Police for the registration of an FIR, the latter had not acted. Saraf had prayed for the investigation to be taken forward.
In its judgement, the court recorded the ED had shared the material with the Punjab Police under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act and sought registration of an FIR. The ED’s communication dated 30 July was received by the state police chief’s office, but no FIR was registered. A reminder was sent on 7 August, but there was no response.
“We are also not impressed by the manner in which Punjab Police has acted so far in the matter and therefore we deem it appropriate to entrust investigation of the present case to the Central Bureau of Investigation,” says the judgement.
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ED probe
The allegations against Gohal and his associates first originated in an ED investigation of 2024 concerning Ajay Sehgal and associates of the Indian Cooperative Housing Building Society and alleged irregularities relating to change of land use.
Searches were conducted by the ED between 7 and 10 May this year at the premises of Sehgal, Gohal and others from where documents and electronic material were claimed to have been recovered. The search operation had turned dramatic after bags full of cash were allegedly thrown out of Gohal’s house on one of the higher floors of a multi-storey building.
The agency alleged that examination of WhatsApp chats, call records and other material showed Gohal functioning as an intermediary for people seeking government-related favours.
The ED cited 21 instances of alleged interference in transfers and postings between September 2023 and March 2026. These involved officials from the police, Punjab Civil Services, Food and Civil Supplies, Punjab State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (Markfed) and Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).
It also cited chats relating to policy formulation, amendments to departmental rules, tender conditions, licensing and administrative approvals. Other material allegedly showed access to confidential government proposals and draft decisions before they were signed.
The ED also alleged that Gohal was involved in land transactions, CLU matters, property disputes and GMADA approvals. It referred specifically to a property transaction involving Plot D-156, Phase 7, Mohali, and alleged cash payments over and above the amount reflected in sale documents. It further alleged that Gohal paid for air tickets and hotel stays for Ghuman and former minister Bir Devinder.
The ED said Rs 20.98 lakh in cash was recovered from Gohal. It also alleged that Gohal had helped install his brother Jitin Gohal in the Chief Minister’s Office through Dr Romi Raja Mahajan and Ghuman, citing a WhatsApp conversation dated 23 January 2026.
What happened in court
The Punjab government’s principal argument in court was that the PIL was not maintainable and that the petitioner had no locus standi to demand an FIR. On the court’s insistence, the state government, however, told the court that the ED material was not fully legible and that the Punjab Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to whom the material had been transferred needed time to verify it before deciding whether a criminal case should be registered.
During the hearing of the court case, the Punjab government produced a chronology showing that the PBI had examined the ED material, issued notices to several people, sought information from 29 departments and eventually asked the ED for clearer copies and supporting electronic records.
The court was unimpressed. “A careful perusal of the aforesaid note raises more questions than it answers,” it said. The court questioned why the police had spent weeks examining the material and issuing notices if the documents were supposedly not legible. It pointed out that the police sought legible copies only on 28 August, after nearly a month of deliberations.
“The above fact sheet (of action taken by Punjab police) clearly shows that the information shared by ED with Punjab Police has led to a journey with all travel and no reaching. What was required at the level of Punjab Police was to examine the contents shared by ED with it, and if it did disclose commission of cognisable offence, which it does in our considered view, an FIR ought to have been registered and investigation ought to have proceeded. This is not what has happened,” reads the judgement.
The court went further, observing that the sequence “lends credence to the petitioner’s contention that time is being bought only to formulate strategies to save guilty and manipulate the available evidence”.
The court also noted that Ghuman, despite being the OSD in the Chief Minister’s Office, had not been associated with the preliminary inquiry or asked for his response, even though several others named in the ED material had been questioned.
The court also held that when the ED forms an opinion, based on material in its possession, that another law has been violated, it shares that information with the concerned agency for “necessary action”. The purpose, the court said, is to activate the criminal investigation process.
The court concluded that the material sent by the ED was not merely the agency’s opinion, but included the material on which that opinion was based, including WhatsApp chats and other information supported by electronic-evidence certification.
“The allegations, taken on its face value, are serious and required investigation by the jurisdictional police… prima facie allegations with regard to scams including cash for transfers; cash for getting favourable policies; cash for tenders, and such other illegal activities corruption in high public offices have been substantiated by the ED with reference to various WhatsApp chats and other information,” reads the order.
The high court said the material forwarded by the ED was “voluminous”. Its order reproduced portions of Gohal’s statement recorded by the ED. When questioned about why government officials were approaching him regarding transfers and postings despite his not being a competent authority, Gohal said he had known Ghuman for 22 years and that officials and legislators forwarded requests to him. He described his role as preparing lists in Excel and forwarding them to the concerned person.
In another exchange, Gohal acknowledged that he had received and forwarded a confidential government presentation relating to foodgrain policy. He told the ED that he was not authorised to access confidential government documents but had received the document “due to my links with officers”.
The ED also questioned him about travel bookings for Ghuman, Bir Devinder and others and cash payments recorded in a travel agency ledger. Gohal acknowledged booking tickets and hotels for them, although he denied that these represented kickbacks and said that in many cases the concerned persons paid directly.
The judgement has been hailed by the Opposition, but it is bad news for the Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party government, which is bidding for power for a second time in the 2027 Assembly elections. AAP has previously alleged that Central agencies are being used to target and defame the state government. Now with a full-fledged CBI enquiry underway monitored by the high court, the only recourse, the government has is legal.
Congress state chief Pargat Singh wrote on X: “The investigation must now be fair, impartial, transparent and time-bound-with no delay, political pressure or attempt to dilute it. Everyone responsible for causing loss to Punjab’s exchequer must be held accountable, regardless of how powerful or influential they may be.”
Congress legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira described the high court decision as significant, saying the matter concerned the Chief Minister’s Office, while Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said he hoped for a fair, impartial and time-bound investigation.
The BJP also moved quickly to attack the Mann government over the order, questioning the functioning and accountability of the Chief Minister’s Office and demanding answers from the Punjab government.
The Akalis who had met the Punjab governor to seek a CBI probe the matter said the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s decision to hand over the alleged cash-for-postings case involving “Guru-Dokhi” (betrayer of the Khalsa, as declared by Akal Takht) Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s OSD to the CBI exposed the “true face” of this regime.
“If the Enforcement Directorate had already asked for an FIR to be registered, why did Punjab Police refuse to act? Why did the judiciary have to intervene to ensure a CBI probe?
“And yet, this is the same government that has splurged crores of public money on self-glorifying advertisements to paint itself as honest. “Is this what honesty looks like under Guru-Dokhi Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann? Punjab will not be fooled by publicity and silence – the people demand accountability,” Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal wrote on X.
SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia the time had come when everyone in the Aam Aadmi Party would be exposed. “The role of the chief secretary in trying to cover up the corruption will also be probed,” wrote Majithia on X.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)