VB challan in, Ranike out
Tuesday, 27/11/2012
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Having completed its investigations in the discretionary funds embezzlement scam, the Amritsar vigilance bureau on Monday submitted the challan in the court of additional sessions judge.
The challan submitted by the VB lists Sarabdyal Singh, PA of the former minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, as the main accused. Other than this, neither Ranike nor any of his family members find any reference in the challan.
The challan, which lists 21 other persons, also mentions Sarabdyal Singh’s brother-inlaw Harjit Singh as one of the prime accused. The vigilance bureau claimed that a total of Rs 3.19 crore was embezzled from the discretionary funds of the former minister. Although the VB claimed that it had called Ranike for questioning during probe, it said it failed to find anything conclusive against him.
Talking to HT, vigilance SSP Opinderjit Singh Ghuman said: “The challan has been submitted with 21 names, all of whom are behind bars. Sarabdyal is the main accused.” Responding to questions on Ranike’s involvement, the SSP said: “Ranike was questioned, but his role could not be established.”
Vigilance DSP Naresh Sharma said: “There are 24 others who are absconding and we have already uploaded their pictures on our website.”
The vigilance bureau had submitted the challan in the border area development programme (BADP) scam case in October and reported embezzlement of Rs 75 lakh. However, subsequent VB probe found that the scam was bigger than reported in FIR No. 285 in June. The FIR registered on the complaint of the district administration, had accused Sarabdyal and others of embezzling Rs 1.15 crore from the discretionary funds of Ranike.
However, as the probe moved on, VB found that a whopping Rs 3.19 crore was embezzled from the discretionary funds.
The challan submitted on Monday also mentions t he names of some bank officials and persons who acted as sarpanches. The VB claimed that money was embezzled by encashing the cheques of grant by opening fake bank accounts by fake sarpanches. In some instances, real sarpanches also played foul.
In all, the vigilance found 42 fake bank accounts in various banks from where t he government money was siphoned off.
