Amarinder skips hearing,says he’s unwell

However,former local government minister Jagjit Singh,AIT former chairman Jugal Kishore Sharma and 13 other persons named as accused in the case registered by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) in Mohali,appeared before the court.

Public Prosecutor-cum-District Attorney Pradeep Mehta requested for permission to begin arguments but the defence counsels sought reply to the application moved by Jagjit during the last date of hearing seeking stay on the trial proceedings in the light of an order passed by the Supreme Court in the case. Submitting a copy of the said order,Jagjit’s counsel had on August 17 argued that the observations made therein “indirectly tantamount to stay on trial proceedings till further orders”.

Strongly opposing the plea,Mehta vehemently argued that nowhere in the said order,it was written to stay the trial proceedings,which he stressed to continue without any further delay. Instead,the Public Prosecutor-cum-District Attorney termed the plea as “malicious with an ulterior motive to delay the trial proceedings”.

However,the defence counsels sought written reply or statement from the prosecution to their plea before starting arguments,for which they sought time.

Special Judge S K Garg posted the matter to September 15 for arguments on framing of charges and prosecution’s reply to Jagjit’s plea.

On February 10,the VB had presented a challan against 16 persons named as accused in the FIR registered in Mohali after Amarinder was indicted by a Punjab Assembly panel and expelled from the House in September 2008.

The nine-member Assembly panel had charged them with releasing 32.10 acre of AIT land for development by builders in violation of rules following a complaint by a senior Congress leader and former Assembly Deputy Speaker Bir Devinder Singh,who had raised the issue in the House during Singh’s tenure as Chief Minister between 2002-2007.