PMLA court frames charges against three PWD officials

PATIALA: The designated court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at Mohali on Friday framed charges against three officials of the Punjab’s public works department (PWD) under Section 4 of the PMLA. This follows the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) unearthing of records of properties worth several crore rupees belonging to these officials bought with money allegedly siphoned off from the state exchequer.
As per the challan filed by the ED in the court of judge Harjit Singh, the three officials were accused of preparing forged letters of credit and bills of unauthorized works to drain off the department’s funds.

Investigations carried out into nine FIRs against executive engineer (XEN) Joginder Singh, junior engineer (JE) Sarabjeet Singh and a retired superintendent Satpal Bansal between 2011 and 2014 in Bathinda revealed that the accused bought properties and gold worth over Rs 20 crore in the name of their nine relatives.

The names of their relatives were incorporated in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered by the ED under certain sections of the PMLA.

In the 2,276-page challan that was filed in March last year, the ED had put on record that Joginder purchased properties in the name of his wife Kamaljeet Kaur, father-in-law Joginder Singh and mother-in-law Gurcharan Kaur. Sarbjeet got the properties in the names of his mother, maternal uncle and two cousins. The third accused Satpal bought properties in the name of his wife.

In the FIRs that were registered by the state vigilance bureau, it had been alleged that Joginder and Satpal conspired to forged letters of credit, bills and granted works in an unauthorized manner. Joginder had been accused of embezzling of around Rs 17 crore. He was also accused of buying an SUV from the government funds and also transferring public money to his own account.

He faced charges of financial irregularities in tender process for construction of the judicial complex at Budhlada town of Mansa district. Similarly, Sarabjeet siphoned more than Rs 6 crore by fraudulently effecting payments to contractors. Their family members were found to have assisted in laundering of this money.