Vigilance Bureau summons former education minister Vijay Inder Singla in disproportionate assets case

According to sources, in September last year, a few of Singla’s close associates had been questioned by the Vigilance Bureau over tender allotment works in the PWD when Singla was the minister. During Singla’s tenure as PWD minister, several allegations had been raised over inferior works being carried out by the PWD and the issue was also raised during the elections.

The inquiry into the disproportionate assets case against Singla also began a few months ago, sources added. Officials have reportedly been inspecting revenue records for details of properties linked to Singla, his family members or close aides. However, details of this probe have not been made public yet.

Singla is not the only Congress minister to be questioned in relation to the disproportionate assets case. Former Congress ministers Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Sunder Sham Arora and Balbir Singh Sidhu have also been questioned in the same case. Recently, former Congress minister Brahm Mohindra and Faridkot MLA Kiki Dhillon were also questioned by the Vigilance Bureau. Gill MLA Kuldeep Singh Vaid’s house was raided on the same issue two days ago but he was later booked under the Excise Act. Dharamsot and Arora are behind bars.

Singla, considered a close confidant of Rahul Gandhi, hails from a political family. His father Sant Ram Singla was a former Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur from 1991-96 and died in April 2005. Singla entered politics in 2002 and served as general secretary of the Punjab Youth Congress (PYC) till 2004. After his father’s death, Singla was made chairman of the Punjab Energy Development Authority (PEDA) in 2005 by then chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. He even served as president of the PYC from 2006-2008 and conducted elections as a pilot project in 2008, which was later followed in the rest of the country.

In 2009, he won the Sangrur Lok Sabha polls defeating Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa by more than 40,000 votes. Though he was instrumental in getting several projects to Sangrur, he lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Following his loss in the 2022 elections, Singla has not been politically active.