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Journalism of Courage
Following up on the allegations during the run-up to the Assembly elections regarding irregularities and kickbacks in the controversial multi-crore Ludhiana City Centre project, the Badal government has booked former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, former local bodies minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and 13 others on various charges relating to the alleged scam.
Former PPCC president H S Hanspal and former Ludhiana Improvement Trust chairman Wing Commander Paramjit Singh Sibia retd, are among others booked. Besides, four MDs of the firms engaged in developing City Centre have also been charged by the Vigilance Bureau. Two arrests have been made. Vigilance Bureau has alerted all international airports in India to prevent those named in the FIR from flying abroad.
SSP, Vigilance Bureau Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu said besides the four top persons, the others named in the FIR include Capt Rajesh, Sunil Sharma, G K Gambhir of Today Homes, Viney Subhiki, Sanjiv Kumar Gupta, Saurav Gupta, S H Nakwi, Amit Sardana, Kamal Verma, Manmohan Singh and Dyal Chand executive officer of LIT. Sandhu said the four MDs of Today Hotels, GPS Pvt Ltd, Krishma Pvt Ltd and Today Homes had been found involved in the 8216;scam8217; during preliminary investigation and their names would be added in the FIR. The SSP said of these, they have arrested Kamal Verma and Amit Sardana.
Sandhu said the case had been registered on the basis of an inquiry conducted by Vigilance following reports in a section of media about the LIT City Centre scam. He said two inquiries were conducted and the present case had been registered on the basis of the latest inquiry.
Sources said the vigilance inquiry said the scam caused a loss up to Rs 3,000 crore to the state exchequer. They also found out that kickbacks of Rs 100 crore had been received by some influential persons in the previous government.
