The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) Tuesday issued a Look Out Circular (LoC) against former cabinet minister Manpreet Singh Badal in connection with a cheating and forgery case registered against him. The teams of the VB carried out searches at Manpreet’s residence in Bathinda on Monday but he could not be arrested. The LOC has been issued at all airports against Manpreet Badal in connection with a case registered under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 13(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, in addition to the Information Technology Act, against him in a land allotment case. Apart from Manpreet, who is now in the BJP, former Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) chief administrator Bikramjit Shergill and four others, identified as Rajiv Kumar, Amandeep Singh, Vikas Arora and Pankaj, were booked in the case on Sunday night. Chief Minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann, in a statement, had taken a swipe at Manpreet, saying those who used to boast about honesty are now running from pillar to post to save their skin. “There is a huge difference between speaking the truth and standing by it…These hypocrites always befooled people with their flowery language,” Mann said, adding under the garb of public service, they looted the wealth of the state which is not tolerable.
