Two food and civil supplies controllers held in tender scam in Punjab
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 22 Nov, 2022 11:38 AM
Chandigarh, Nov 22 (IANS) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested two district food and civil supplies controllers (DFSCs) involved in the infamous tender scam in grain markets in Ludhiana district, involving former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu.
Besides, the VB has also initiated proceedings in the court against three accused -- R.K. Singla, Deputy Director with the food and civil supplies, and Pankaj Kumar and Inderjit Singh, both personal assistants of former food and civil supplies minister Ashu -- to declare them as proclaimed offenders.
A spokesperson for the VB said the bureau had already registered a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and of the Prevention of Corruption Act against contractors Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia and owners and partners of Gurdas Ram and Company, besides officers of the state Food and Civil Supply Department for allocation of labour and transportation tenders in grain markets.
He said Telu Ram, former minister Ashu and Krishan Lal Dhotiwala and Anil Jain, both commission agents, have already been arrested and all are in judicial custody.
The VB has already presented chargesheets against them in a court at Ludhiana.
The VB on Tuesday arrested two more accused -- Sukhwinder Singh Gill, then DFSC Ludhiana West, and Harveen Kaur, then DFSC Ludhiana East. At present Gill is posted as DFSC Faridkot and Harveen Kaur as DFSC Jalandhar.
He said the accused were members and conveners of district tender committee at the time of allotment of tenders. They along with other members of committee were responsible to check the relevant documents attached with the tenders including list of transport vehicles but they had not verified the registration numbers of vehicles intentionally as the number of scooters, motorcycles, among others, were mentioned in the attached list of vehicles.
Despite submission of wrong documents, they have allotted tenders to the favourite persons by accepting bribe money from them, he added.
Denying bail to the jeweller Dev Varma (40), Chief metropolitan magistrate Pankaj Sharma said in the Monday's order that some of the expensive jewellery in connection with the crime was yet to be recovered and pointed out the Delhi Police's stand in the matter.
Orthopedic specialist Dr. Satish Kumar Poonia working in Ringus CHC, his wife Sarita Poonia, son Raja alias Daksh (14), Poonia's brother-in-law Rajesh Devanda (35) and Rajesh's wife Reena died in accident. The search is on for the doctor's two-year-old daughter Rajvi and her brother-in-law's elder brother's 4-year-old daughter Gudiya in the canal.
As per the latest findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the state's financial crisis is set to worsen with the debt likely to reach Rs 3.73 lakh crore by 2024-25.
The bench noted that the victims have been denied a chance of effective hearing and the high court overlooked relevant considerations. It further added that the tearing hurry shown by the high court merits the setting aside of bail order and remanded the matter back to high court for fresh consideration. The bench said the high court order cannot be sustained and is thus set aside.
A local court on Monday remanded Abhishek Hiremath, the accused youth whose objectionable social media post allegedly triggered large-scale violence in Hubballi, to judicial custody till April 30. Prohibitory orders have been clamped in the city till April 20 and as many as 100 persons detained in connection with the violence.
Punjab Police have solved the hand-grenade attack at Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) office in Nawanshahr by busting a major Pakistan-based terror module run by Harvinder Singh, alias Rinda, with the arrest of its three operatives, said Director General of Police V.K. Bhawra here on Monday.
