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Journalism of Courage
Facing a near daily barrage of allegations over ‘‘ill-gotten property’’, the Badal camp tried the transparency card yesterday. It invited the media to Sukhbir Singh Badal’s controversial property — at 256, Sector 9 here — and declared it will always be open to the media for any assessment.
‘‘This house will always be open to the media. Mediamen have been here before, and are always welcome to go around the house anywhere. They can photograph or videograph the house. Every penny that has been spent is accounted for,’’ said Babbi Badal, a nephew of Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal.
A spokesperson said the media would again be invited in a day or so as a caretaker who had the keys to the house’s main portions could not be traced. Babbi claimed the house was currently given on lease to Sukhbir Badal as he is the Dabwali Transport Company’s managing director in his ex-officio capacity. Babbi said the furniture and air-conditioners were also on rent.
‘‘If this house has 28 ACs, then Amarinder Singh must count even larger number of ACs in his official residence. Incidentally, those ACs are powered by tax-payers’ money, a fact which the Vigilance Bureau forgets,’’ Babbi added.
Taking another dig at the CM, he said: ‘‘If Amarinder Singh so desires, we are ready to exchange this entire property with just one room of his palace with its belongings.’’
Along with Youth Akali Dal president Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Babbi also ridiculed claims of Italian marble and a dance floor in the house. Said Dhillon: ‘‘People and the law are waiting for Amarinder to prove his charges of Akali Dal president’s family having amassed Rs 3,500 crore worth of property. Unless each AC has started costing Rs 100 crore, it will be difficult to tot up that sum.’’
However, the Vigilance Bureau stuck to its guns, with Chief Director A.P. Pandey saying yesterday that investigation of loans and share transactions pointed towards recycling of graft money by the Badals. Pandey said a ‘‘lot was coming true’’ in the complaint filed by one Balwant Singh.
Asked for a comment on Deputy PM L.K. Advani’s criticism, Pandey said: ‘‘I have no comment to make on a political statement. I am not competent to comment in any way.’’
Pandey said they were investigating six companies, which had Sukhbir Badal as MD and Surinder Kaur Badal as director.
‘‘Most of these companies never functioned, barring Dabwali Transport. Continental Hatcheries has been closed for a long time. In two of these companies, Phalcon Properties and Integral Deposits, Rs 23.85 lakh and Rs 23.2 lakh were taken as shares by various persons. However, this money at one go was transferred to Orbit Resorts as unsecured loans,’’ said Pandey.
The most interesting part was that the shares of these companies were transferred to Sukhbir, as in the case of Phalcon, on July 31, 2001.
Pandey said the original purchasers of the shares had given up all rights of ownership on the shares and the Vigilance was investigating this closely. Pandey said the records books of Orbit showed Rs 40 crore investments.
Similarly, Pandey added, Narotam Singh Dhillon had shown ‘‘loans’’ to the Badals but had paid these back to banks within a month with hard cash. ‘‘He has shown no documents to reflect these transactions. He has no PAN number or IT returns. He could not answer what was the source of money he gave as loans. Evidence will prove it is graft,’’ said Pandey. He added that Dhillon was wanted by US tax authorities for tax evasion, cheating and fraud.
Meanwhile on Friday, a court in Kharar allowed photography and videography of Badal’s house in Sector 9, Chandigarh, besides directing Badal and his family to cooperate with the Vigilance Bureau in the assessment and investigation process.
Besides, the court issued warrants for searching the Sector 5 house of Badal’s daughter, Parneet Kaur, and the Vasant Kunj flat of RS MP Sukhbir Singh Badal’s PA Krishan Kumar.
