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Ludhiana City Centre ‘scam’?
The Indian Express explains the corruption case
that has continued to haunt Punjab CM Amarinder
Singh and his family for twelve years.
Written by Divya
Goyal | Ludhiana | Updated:
November 29, 2019 12:27:13 am
Lok Insaaf Party MLA Simarjit Singh Bains
recently said that Punjab CM Amarinder Singh got
him booked for ‘misbehaving’ with Gurdsapur DC
Vipul Ujjwal because he had challenged the
closure report filed by the Vigilance Bureau in
the alleged Rs 1,144 crore Ludhiana City Centre
Scam in which Amarinder Singh is one of the
accused. The
Indian Express explains
the corruption case that has continued to haunt
CM and his family for twelve years.
What was Ludhiana City Centre Project?
Started during Captain Amarinder Singh’s
previous tenure as the Punjab CM in 2005-06, the
multi-crore infrastructure project proposed to
build a ‘City Centre’ including shopping mall,
residential towers, helipad, multiplex etc on a
site measuring 25-acre located on Pakhowal road
of Ludhiana, which currently lies in ruins. The
project was to be executed by Ludhiana
Improvement Trust (LIT), a body under local
bodies department of the Punjab government.
Who are the accused and what have they been
charged with?
The accused in the case include Captain
Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder Singh,
son-in-law Raminder Singh and 33 others. They
were booked for alleged corruption and cheating
under the Sections 420, 409, 465, 467, 468, 471,
201 and 120-B of IPC and sections 7,8,9,13 (1),
13(2) and 14 of the Prevention of Corruption Act
(PCA), 1988. Of 36 accused, five of them —
Chaudhary Jagjit Singh (then local bodies
minister), Paramjit Singh Sibia (then LIT
chairman), Malkeet Kaur, Vijay Kumar Parti and
Sunil Kumar Sharma died during the proceedings.
There are 152 witnesses in the case.
How has the probe progressed?
The probe in case was marked to Vigilance Bureau
by CM Amarinder Singh-led Punjab government on
September 19, 2006 after reports in media
claimed irregularities in the project. However,
the FIR was registered by Vigilance Bureau on
March 23, 2007 after SAD-BJP won
Punjab polls in 2007. The FIR was registered on
the orders of then Director, Vigilance Bureau,
Sumedh Singh Saini and later chargesheet was
filed in a local court on December 12, 2007
against 36 accused.
What are the allegations against Amarinder and
others?
The Vigilance Bureau in its inquiry alleged that
Amarinder in connivance with LIT officials and
others caused a loss of at least Rs 1,144 crore
to the exchequer by ‘favouring’ private company
M/S Today Homes and awarding it the contract by
‘tampering bids’. It was also alleged that the
Congress party wanted the funding of at least Rs
100 crore from this project for 2007 polls and
therefore the then CM and others received ‘bribe
money’ of Rs 100 crore from owners of M/S Today
Homes in return of awarding them City Centre
contract.
In its first probe report on the basis of which
SSP Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu filed the FIR, the
Vigilance says, “Prima facie the wrongful loss
to state exchequer and wrongful gain to M/S
Today Homes is estimated to be between Rs 1,500
to 3,000 crores… A source report from an SP
(VB), which has been put in sealed cover in the
enquiry report has stated than an amount of over
Rs 100 crores has been paid as bribe by M/S
Today Homes to Captain Amarinder Singh, Sibia,
Jagjit Singh and others for implementation and
allotment of this illegal project…”
Further, VB said that Captain removed then LIT
chairman Ashok Garcha as he refused to give nod
to project smelling the rat and ‘fit-in’ his
close aide Sibia. Later, the Vigilance Bureau
also claimed recovery of Rs 40 lakh ‘bribe
money’ from then LIT executive officer Dyal
Chand Garg. Vigilance had claimed that a pen
drive was also recovered from another accused
Chetan Gupta of Delhi which contained details of
alleged ‘hawala’ transaction of at least Rs 21
crore credited by M/S Today Homes in the
accounts of Captain and his son, Raninder Singh.
The Vigilance Bureau probe said that LIT
officials allegedly ‘tampered’ bids on night of
May 10-11, 2005 sitting at Hotel Park Plaza of
Ludhiana where Today Homes representatives were
also present — five days before bids were
officially opened on May 17, 2005.
Ten years later, how did the case take a
complete U-turn in 2017?
Just three days before results of the 2017
Punjab polls were announced on March 11, one of
the accused Chetan Gupta filed an application
with the Bureau demanding ‘re-investigation’ in
the case. Taking a surprisingly swift action on
the application, VB conducted a
‘re-investigation’ and filed closure report
(under Section 173(8) of CrPC) within five
months, in the Ludhiana court of sessions judge
Gurbir Singh on August 19, 2017. The report gave
a clean chit to all accused and said that there
was no scam at all. Even after 12 years, charges
have not been framed against the accused in
court.
How the Vigilance Bureau flayed its own 2007
probe in closure report?
The closure report (copy with The Indian
Express) concluded that “there is no proof or
fact to substantiate any scam in the project”
and that “Captain Amarinder Singh never had any
ill-intention in the execution of the
project”.The report also says that “there is no
proof of any bribe money exchanged”. The report
concluded that “no evidence has been found
against any of the persons named and neither
there is any proof of any bungling or scam in
Ludhiana city centre”. “All allegations are just
kalpanik (fictional) and sambhavit (doubtful),”
it says. The fresh report by Vigilance, at
several places, says that its own officials “did
not investigate properly earlier” and now in the
“wake of new facts, documents and proofs”, it
has been found that “there is no documentary
proof of any irregularity in the project” and
“none of the persons named in the FIR had any
ill-intention”.
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So, has the closure report gone unchallenged?
No, in fact, since closure report has been filed
there have been four applications challenging
the clean chit to accused including the two by
then senior most Vigilance investigators — but
all dismissed. First, the local court dismissed
applications by LIP MLA Simarjit Singh Bains and
an architect S K Dey. Later, applications of
then SSP Vigilance Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu and
former Punjab DGP (then Director vigilance)
Sumedh Singh Saini were also dismissed. Both
cops had appealed that court should hear them
once before accepting closure report and
expressed to share some ‘case facts’ in ‘sealed
envelope’.
Now, an appeal by MLA Bains is pending in the
High Court. Even the Enforcement Directorate
(ED) filed separate FIR in 2013 for alleged
money laundering in the case against Captain and
others and their appeal to get chargesheet copy
is also pending in the High Court. Then there is
a third case which LIT is fighting against M/S
Today Homes, opposing the compensation of Rs
1,100 crore awarded to the company as per orders
of sole arbitrator Justice R C Lahoti in 2017.
Ironically, local bodies department is taking an
opposite stand from Vigilance Bureau in this
case and saying that private firm is not
innocent.
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