Chandigarh: Hours after the Punjab Vigilance Bureau booked Manpreet Singh Badal in a corruption case Monday, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann took a dig at the former state finance minister for “running from pillar to post” to save himself.
“First you said do whatever you can. I will wait for your action against me and now you are scared of being arrested… it is very difficult to speak the truth and stand for the truth…,” Mann tweeted in Punjabi.
The Vigilance Bureau booked Manpreet Badal and five others in an alleged corruption case Monday related to the purchase of a residential house in Bathinda in 2021 at a cost much below the market rate. Three persons have been arrested, said a Vigilance Bureau press statement.
A team of the Punjab police also raided the former finance minister’s residence in Badal village in Muktsar late Monday evening.
Investigating allegations levelled by his political rival and former Bathinda MLA Sarup Chand Singla, Manpreet was questioned by the Vigilance Bureau (VB) in July. Through a video message, Manpreet had challenged Mann to do whatever he could in his capacity as the chief minister to prove the charges against him. Last week, Manpreet had approached the Bathinda civil court for anticipatory bail.
In June last year, Singla who was with the Shiromani Akali Dal joined the BJP. Manpreet joined the BJP in January this year.
Reminding Manpreet of his statement Monday, Mann said it was easier to say the truth than stand by it, challenging him to face punitive action instead of looking for legal ways to evade it.
Manpreet had brought Mann into politics in 2011, convincing him to leave his career as a comic and actor to join his newly formed People’s Party of Punjab (PPP). Manpreet had created the PPP after he broke away from the Shiromani Akali Dal. Both Manpreet and Mann campaigned together during the 2012 assembly polls. Later, they parted ways with Manpreet joining the Congress and Mann joining the Aam Aadmi Party.
In a press statement, Mann said that leaders like Manpreet would swear by their honesty and simplicity but “the truth is that they looted the treasury of Punjab to fill their own coffers while constantly claiming that the Punjab treasury was empty”.
Mann said that those who used to boast too much about honesty are now running pillar to post to save their skin. Rather than making tall claims about honesty and simplicity, he said, the former minister must face action as per law of land.
Giving details of the case, a vigilance bureau spokesperson said that it was found that Manpreet during his tenure as the finance minister from 2018 to 2021, used his “political pressure and influence” to purchase two plots in Model Town Phase 1 of the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) at lower prices.
The spokesperson added that Manpreet allegedly colluded with BDA employees and misled the public during the bidding of plots in 2021 to prevent their participation in the bidding process.
Misleading maps of the auction sites were uploaded and the two plots were shown as commercial instead of residential in the map. The numbers of the plots, too, were not shared on the online e-auction portal.
Further, the digital signatures of Balwinder Kaur, Administrative Officer, BDA Bathinda were used for the auction of plots without her permission, said the spokesperson.
The VB statement added that the bids of three bidders were made by one person from the same IP address and from the same place. Both the plots were purchased by the bidders in 2021 at a lower rate, causing a financial loss of about Rs 65 lakh to the government.
“The former finance minister has purchased both plots through agreements from the bidders known to him before they got allotment letters from BDA Bathinda. It was also found that Manpreet Singh Badal has transferred 25 percent earnest money in advance to the successful allottees which shows him in connivance with the bidders,” it said.
The three bidders — Rajiv Kumar, Amandeep Singh, and Vikas Arora — were arrested, it added.
Two others — PCS officer Bikramjit Singh Shergill, the then ADC development Muktsar, and Pankaj Kalia, the then superintendent with the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority — too have been booked in the case.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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