Three-member SIT to probe Tulli lab testing scam: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh

CHANDIGARH: Under fire over alleged Covid testing scam by Tulli Labs, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday announced a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the allegations. He warned that his government would not allow private hospitals or laboratories to profit from this unprecedented crisis facing humanity.
During his weekly online session, the CM said he had received a complaint against Tulli Labs and had asked the vigilance bureau to investigate the matter but when initial investigation showed that there was no involvement of any government department or officer, the case was transferred to the Punjab Police.
Top cop, civil surgeon members of SIT
The three-member SIT tasked with the probe is headed by Amritsar police commissioner, who is a trained medical doctor and includes a civil surgeon as a member, the CM said, adding that he has ordered the SIT to conduct a thorough investigation and submit its findings soon so that suitable action can be taken.
A spokesperson of the chief minister’s office later said Amarinder had taken strong exception to SAD leader Bikram Majithia’s attempts to politicise the simple jurisdictional decision of transferring the probe to the district police. Apart from the fact that the vigilance bureau had, prima facie, not found any complicity of government department/official in the case, Tulli Labs itself had moved the court challenging the bureau’s jurisdiction, he said, adding that the government deemed it fit to transfer the case to the Punjab Police to ensure that no legal hurdle is posed later.
Rather than raising such a nonissue and weakening the morale of the Punjab Police, Majitha should invest his time and energy in pressurizing the Akalis’ political masters in Delhi to put a stop on CBI interference in the Punjab Police investigation in the Bargari and other sacrilege cases, and the subsequent policing firing incidents, said Captain.
Responding to a question whether the recently established Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) led by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa was a Congress game plan, the chief minister said what happens in the Akali party “is not our job.”