Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA and the leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sukhpal Khaira on Sunday demanded registration of FIR against the former Power and Irrigation Minister Rana Gurjeet Singh “over Rs 5crore bribery by Irrigation contractor Gurinder Singh”.
Khaira said that the way the Government first set up the Narang Commission with tailor-made “terms of reference” to suit the accused, and then kept the report under wraps for eight months only to table it on the last day of the budget session without any discussion possible for the next six months, has only vindicated our pointed allegations that Justice JS Narang Commission was a “premeditated conspiracy” by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh “to give a clean chit to his blue-eyed financier Rana Gurjeet”.
Lambasting Justice Narang for failing to trace money trail that flowed into Rajbir Enterprises — the front entity of Rana Gurjeet — to bag sand mines of Saidpur Khurd and Mehdipur, Khaira said that apart from money coming from companies owned by Rana Gurjeet directly into Rajbir Enterprises, the most important was Rs five crore investment made by Rs 1,000 crore irrigation “thug” contractor Gurinder Singh.
He alleged that Gurinder Singh was “arm-twisted by Rana Gurjeet, the then Irrigation Minister, to pay him the said Rs five crore bribe, if he wanted favours from him as his Minister”.
Khaira claimed that he had authentic information that after having received Rs five crore bribe from Gurinder Singh, Rana Gurjeet has further been paid Rs 10 crore more for release of huge payments that were stopped by the Irrigation Department after registration of corruption case by the Vigilance on April 19, 2017.
“On receiving Rs 10 crore more in black money, Rana Gurjeet ordered the release of huge payments to the companies of Gurinder Singh after the registration of corruption FIR against him, which amounts to defrauding the public exchequer,” he alleged.
Blaming Justice Narang for ignoring such a huge entry of Rs five crore that was made from the account of Jatin Garg, nephew of Tirloki Nath Singla the CA-cum-partner of Rana Gurjeet, into Rajbir Enterprises, Khaira said that Justice Narang has lowered the prestige of judiciary in the eyes of people for cheap personal financial benefit.
Khaira urged the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder to direct Justice Narang to refund all remunerations that he had enjoyed as the head of commission including salary, TA, DA, petrol expenses, office expenses, security expenditure etc, for cheating the government by giving a bogus clean chit report despite clinching evidence of benami transactions and money laundering against Rana Gurjeet.
At the same time, Khaira also dared Capt Amarinder to register a FIR against Rana Gurjeet without any further delay “as he is himself on record in the just-concluded Vidhan Sabha that investigations into Rs five crore payment by Gurinder Singh to Rana Gurjeet is underway”.