In a crackdown on corruption, Punjab's Vigilance Bureau on Sunday registered a case against the former state finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and five others in connection with alleged irregularities in the purchase of a property in Bathinda. As per reports, Manpreet Badal and five others have been booked under charges of IPC sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B and 13(1) of Prevention of Corruption Act and Information Technology Act. Apart from Manpreet Badal, five others, including a PCS officer, on corruption charges in a land allotment case. Notably, reports further suggested that the Vigilance Bureau has arrested 2 persons in the case and raids are underway to arrest the named accused in the case.
Talking about other names in the case, apart from Manpreet Badal, other accused have been identified as Bikramjit Shergill, then MC commissioner and Bathinda Development Authority chief administrator, Rajiv Kumar, Amandeep Singh, Vikas Arora and Pankaj, a then BDA superintendent. It is pertinent to mention here that Rajiv and Amandeep have been arrested.
What are the accusations against Manpreet Badal & others or what is the Land Allotment Scam case?
As per reports, the state's anti-corruption unit came into action after a complaint was filed by former MLA Sarup Chand Singla who had alleged irregularities in the purchase of a property in a prime location in Bathinda city. Singla, who too had switched from the Shiromani Akali Dal to the BJP, had filed a complaint before vigilance in September 2021 alleging that during his tenure as finance minister in the previous Congress regime, Manpreet had allegedly taken advantage of his position by converting commercial plots in the Model Town into residential plots for himself.
Manpreet Badal has been accused of buying a commercial plot in Bathinda at a residential price via proxy. To be precise, the bidding of the plot was done from a single IP address as per the Vigilance adding that Rajiv and Vikas purchased the plot in the bidding, and later transferred it to Manpreet at a lower price. As per the Bureau, the plot in question was sold by hinding facts, and a day after the bidding, Manpreet and the purchaser entered into a sale agreement even as the bidding process was not approved. All the three different bids are made from a single IP address, which hints that it was a proxy bid to procure commercial plot at residential prices.
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It ios pertinent to mention here that Manpreet Badal joined the BJP a few months back this year. If counted, Manpreet is the sixth minister from the previous Congress government who has been booked in a corruption case.In July, the former minister had appeared before the Vigilance Bureau’s Bathinda zone office, where he was questioned for more than four hours.
It is pertinent to mention here that Manpreet Badal is currently not arrested. As per a newswire report, Manpreet has already moved an application in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Ram Kumar Singla in Bathinda for his pre-arrest bail. The court has listed the matter for hearing September 26.