Vigilance Bureau asked to reopen Rs 1000 crore Irrigation scam case, IAS officers, politicians under scanner

The Punjab vigilance bureau is about to reopen the cases registered against all retired officers, former ministers, and also some serving officer. 

After the stringent action of the Bhagwant Mann government against its ex-minister Vijay Singla, those involved in the irrigation scam have already started searching for escape routes. The vigilance department has been directed to speed up the investigation. 

Under the Captain government, the vigilance department registered criminal cases on two sitting and four retired officers for wrongly allotting irrigation tenders. The probe revealed how a small-time contractor Gurinder Singh influenced the irrigation department and earned millions. Various tenders were tailored for him. Gurinder was close to senior Akali leaders.

He made over 30 illegal properties of around 100 crore rupees. He was allotted tenders worth Rs 1000 crore which had no parallels.  The rightful process was ignored and all this was done jointly by the then ministers and government officials. 

A money laundering case was initiated based on the said corruption allegations. In the probe undertaken by ED, proceeds of crime are worth almost Rs 42 crores were found in the Bank accounts of Gurinder Singh contractor which have now been attached to the case by the department.

Also read: Vijay Singla Corruption Case: 28 firms, call records, CCTV footage, allies under radar

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 16,  2021, ordered the then government to investigate the accusations of a “shoddy probe” in the case. The co-accused in the case are - Executive Engineers Gulshan Nagpal, Bajrang Lal Singla, Chief Engineers Paramjit Singh Ghuman, Harvinder Singh, and Gurdev Singh Sian. 

Mann ordered all the departments including civil and police that they all have to follow a no-tolerance policy towards corruption even if it was done by the present government's ministers.