At the heart of the Manpreet Singh Badal saga in Punjab is the story of two plots of land, an old rivalry, and a friendship gone sour. A court in Bathinda on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against the former Punjab finance minister amid apprehension that he may flee the country. His current whereabouts are not known and the case will be next heard on October 12. The complainant in the case is Manpreet’s party colleague and old rival Sarup Chand Singla while the one leading the charge against him is Bhagwant Mann whose entry into politics was through an outfit the beleaguered former minister had floated over a decade ago. The Vigilance Bureau has alleged that in September 2021 Manpreet purchased two plots of land in Bathinda’s Model Town area — one measuring 560 square yards and another 1,000 square yards — that had been earmarked for commercial activity but were shown as residential in fake maps that the Bathinda Development Authority put up during e-auction. At this time, Manpreet was in the Congress and the state finance minister. Apart from the allegation that the digital signatures of the estate officer, Balwinder Kaur, were used without her permission, the Bureau has alleged that the three bidders for the plots — Vikas Arora, Rajiv Kumar and Amandeep Singh who have been arrested — purchased them at 2018 rates, causing a loss of Rs 65 lakh to the state exchequer. Manpreet is accused of purchasing the plots from the three much before the BDA issued them allotment letters. Singla is the BJP’s Bathinda district president and once, like the former minister, was in the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). He has refused to withdraw his complaint and, soon after the FIR was registered on Sunday, said, “I had given this application in 2021 when I was in the Akali Dal and Manpreet Singh Badal in the Congress. He was the finance minister of Punjab at the time. My complaint went unheard back then but I am satisfied with the action that the Vigilance Bureau has taken.” Singla was elected the Akali MLA from Bathinda (Urban) in 2012 and was the party’s chief parliamentary secretary in the SAD-BJP government from 2012 to 2017. Meanwhile, Manpreet — Akali patriarch and former CM Parkash Singh Badal’s nephew — was elected the MLA from Giderbha four straight times from 1995 to 2007 and became the finance minister in the government the Akalis formed in 2007. He quit the party following differences over financial policies and subsidy-related issues in 2011, and floated the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) the same year. In 2012, the party unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls, failing to win even one seat. Among its candidates was Mann, the incumbent chief minister who was then Manpreet's friend. A year after losing the 2012 election from Lehragaga in Sangrur district, Mann left for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that was preparing to enter the state. Manpreet, meanwhile, struck an alliance with the Congress for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and contested on a Congress symbol from Bathinda. Even as he lost to his sister-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal of the SAD, Mann was among the AAP’s four winners from the state. Three years later, ahead of the Assembly elections, Manpreet merged his party with the Congress. He defeated Singla from Bathinda (Urban) and with the Congress returning to power he again became the state’s finance minister and held the portfolio for five years. Both Singla and Manpreet contested the Assembly elections last year from the same constituency but lost to the AAP’s Jagrup Singh Gill, a first-time candidate. Though Singla continues to stick to his allegations, his party is not on the same page with him. Manpreet joined the BJP this January, a month after Singla shifted there from the SAD. State BJP president Sunil Jakhar on Tuesday told The Indian Express the case against his party colleague was one of political vendetta. “The FIR was lodged against Manpreet soon after the Punjab governor questioned the CM about the Rs 50,000 crore loan taken by the Punjab government. Just to divert public attention, this FIR has been lodged. If politicians want to improve their image, they need to stop settling personal scores in the name of politics.” Jakhar asked Mann why he was not acting against former CM Charanjit Singh Channi and state Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring whom he had accused of corruption. “Now that the AAP and Congress will be in an alliance, the attention has been diverted to another person when the state is facing controversy over the Rs 50,000 crores of loan,” he added. Mann has frequently taken potshots at his former boss and said in the past that a probe into stamp papers was pending against Manpreet. On Monday, he said, “There is a huge difference between speaking the truth and standing by it … These hypocrites always befooled people with their flowery language. They will be made accountable for their sins and every penny plundered from the state treasury will be recovered. The entire Punjab is well aware of his misdeeds.”
