FILE-Ex-Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu comes out of Government Rajindra Hospital after his medical examination in Patiala on 5/26/2022, Monday. (Express photo by Harmeet Sodhi)Currently lodged in Patiala Central Jail, former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu Friday recorded his witness statement via videoconferencing in the harassment case filed against his Congress colleague and former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu in connection with the CLU scam inquiry.
In the court of Ludhiana chief judicial magistrate Sumit Makkar, Sidhu refused to authenticate the “photocopy” of a file containing the inquiry report and said he could not comment on or verify his signatures on the file unless its “original” was shown to him.
Dismissed DSP Balwinder Singh Sekhon has filed the case alleging that Ashu had harassed and threatened him during the inquiry into the change of land use (CLU) scam involving a housing project. According to Sekhon, the then-minister was among those indicted in his inquiry report, which was submitted in 2019 to the office of Sidhu, who was the local bodies minister. However, the file is now reportedly “missing” from the local bodies department.
The Ludhiana court summoned Sidhu as a witness after Sekhon produced a “photocopy” of the report and submitted that he be asked to verify his signatures on them as it was he who had entrusted the police officer with the inquiry.
Manjit Singh Khaira, counsel for Sidhu, said, “He recorded his evidence via videoconferencing from Patiala jail and clearly said that he cannot authenticate or verify any photocopy of a file unless not shown the original file. A photocopy of the file can be easily manipulated.”
Sidhu further told the court that since he had handled “hundreds of such files and marked multiple inquiries” as the minister, he could not comment on a particular case without seeing the original file.
Sachin Arora, counsel for Sekhon said that Sidhu, “however, very well remembered Sekhon and said that he was an honest officer”.
Earlier, local bodies department officials including then principal secretary A Venu Prasad had told the court that the file on the report had been sent to Sidhu’s office but was “never received back”. The original file is now untraceable in the department head office at Chandigarh, they had submitted.
The next hearing is scheduled for November 14. Both Sidhu and Ashu are lodged in Patiala jail in different cases.