Chandigarh, June 7 (IANS) Just ahead of the visit of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to Punjab, the Vigilance Bureau on Tuesday arrested former minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Dharamsot, who was the Forest Minister in the previous Congress government led by Capt Amarinder Singh, is accused of being involved in illegal felling of over 25,000 trees.
Acting on the interrogation of earlier arrested Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Guramanpreet Singh and contractor Hummy, the police took Dharamsot into custody for the wrongdoings in the Forest Department.
The former minister had links with the arrested forest officials, said officials.
Along with him, a local journalist Kamaljit Singh, who was allegedly working as an aide, was also arrested.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday sparked a political controversy by referring to his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) counterpart Amit Shah as a "murder accused" during an election rally in Jabalpur.
A Kashmiri PhD scholar was arrested in a joint operation of the Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab Police from the Central University in Bathinda on Tuesday for alleged terror links, police said.
On a day when nominations for the May 19 Lok Sabha elections on 13 seats in Punjab begins, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said that he is confident about delivering on his 'Mission 13' promise of winning all seats in the state.
