Chandigarh: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will now probe a money laundering case against three former Punjab ministers as the Punjab Vigilance has handed over the files related to the case to the national investigation agency on Thursday.
According to the information, Vigilance submitted files against the three former ministers Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Sangat Singh Gilzian to the ED and it will investigate now the money transactions and sale and purchase of property of the ministers in the country and abroad.
The ED has asked the Vigilance Bureau chief to provide files of all cases in which the accused are accused of amassing disproportionate assets. The Vigilance Bureau had earlier provided documents of the multi-crore forest scam to the ED. The ED has now asked for files of the Ludhiana and Amritsar Improvement Trust scams that came to light during the Congress government’s tenure.
Ludhiana Improvement Trust scam
A challan has been presented in the court by vigilance in connection with the plot allotment scam of improvement trust in Ludhiana. In this, 4 people including EO Kuljit Kaur of the trust have been accused. The other arrested accused are Praveen Kumar, a sales clerk, Sandeep Sharma, PA of Raman Balasubrahmanyam, and Kamaldeep Singh as co-accused.
According to the vigilance investigation, the accused used to take bribes for other leaders, including the chairman, by manipulating the plot allotment bid. Apart from this, the role of former chairman of the Improvement Trust Raman Balasubrahmanyam, XEN Buta Ram, Jagdev Singh, JE Inderjit Singh and Mandeep Singh has also been accused.
The Amritsar Improvement Trust scam
In 2008, a case was registered against 18 accused, including former CM Captain Amarinder Singh, in connection with the scam of 32 acres of land belonging to the Amritsar Improvement Trust.
Besides Captain Amarinder Singh, former ministers Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, Baljit Singh, Rajiv Bhagat, former Assembly secretary Nachhatar Singh Mawni, Kishan Kumar Kaul, Gurcharan Singh Khara, Subhash Sharma, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Rohit Sharma, joint secretary Tara Singh, Mahesh Khanna, Rajinder Sharma, Lucky Sharma, Ashwani Kale Shah and Kewal Kishan were named as accused in the case.
The case under the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered at the Vigilance police station in Mohali.