LUDHIANA: A former senior Punjab police officer, who had investigated the
City Centre case involving the then
Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh, on Tuesday moved an application before the court of district and session judge Gurbir Singh, alleging threat to his life and implication in false criminal cases.
In his application, former SSP vigilance, Ludhiana, Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu alleged there was a political conspiracy behind the move to cancel the case that he had investigated during service and urged the judge to hear his plea before deciding on the cancellation report filed by the vigilance bureau last year.
Sandhu, in his application said, he had registered the FIR in the City Centre case and had investigated the case while he was posted as the SSP (vigilance bureau) Ludhiana. Sandhu retired from service in 2010. The former police officer told the court in his application that he was being pressured to give assent to the cancellation of the case. The former SSP added that he was facing threat to his life and had been warned that he would be involved in fake criminal cases.
“The entire case, based on the source information, was registered after proper sanction from the senior hierarchy of the department and being a public servant, the petitioner diligently investigated the matter, collected evidence and submitted the final report which is pending consideration before the court since last many years,” Sandhu said in his application.
“That from various sources, the petitioner/complainant in this case is being pressurized that when, he receives notice about the cancellation of the case, he should help in getting the cancellation of this case. However, the petitioner clearly refused that how can he accept a position against his own investigation and evidence brought on the file. Resultantly, he is being threatened to be involved in false criminal cases,” Sandhu alleged in his plea to the court.
The applicant also claimed that he was privy to certain important facts that he wanted to bring to the notice of the court.
What is City Centre case?
In 2007, the vigilance bureau had filed a case against 36 accused, including Captain Amarinder Singh, his son Raninder and son-in-law Raminder for allegedly favouring a Delhi-based firm for the City Centre project.
On August 19 last year, the vigilance bureau had filed a closure report of the case in the court, claiming that there was no scam at all and no proof was found against the accused after a re-investigation into the case.
The project had been announced in 2003 by Amarinder during his previous tenure as CM. Launched in 2006, the project was to have shopping malls, multiplexes, residential apartments etc.
Representative image
