ED files plea to get case shifted to Jalandhar’s PMLA court

On September 3, Special Judge PMLA, had ordered summoning of five accused on October 10, 2019 to face trial for the offences in the case under PMLA.

The ED has been investigating this case under PMLA on the basis of the case registered by VB. It was in February 2017, ED began a separate probe into the case based on VB’s report. It filed a case against former Hoshiarpur SDM and others in June 2017 under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 for causing a loss to government exchequer. Its subsequent probe found that Rs 37 crore excess payment was made to a private persons by government officials.

Rajiv Vashisth, the RTI activist who had exposed this case, said that it would be in the interest of Punjab if the matter was transferred to ED for an impartial probe.

“While the first SIT of VB had investigated this case in quite detailed manner and and raised several points, but the second SIT ignored all those facts and gave the clean chit to all accused instead of probing it on the lines of first SIT to bring out the truth,” he said.
This case pertains to the acquisition of land for Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur for four-laning project of NHAI in which large number of irregularities were allegedly committed by the competent authority at the time of land acquisition.

When this scam was exposed in June 2016, an SIT formed by VB on the basis its finding a criminal case was registered against over dozen people for making an excess payment of about Rs 23 crores. The SIT report had said that the competent authority had allegedly misused its power and benefited certain people.

But then one more SIT was formed by VB, and their probe said that no scam had taken place.

Apart from details of both SIT reports, The Indian Express had also highlighted alleged wrong acquisition of land, which was not as per the original map. After this, Additional Director General, S S Nahar, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) visted Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur last week.