Chandigarh, January 3: After the surfacing of new evidence in the sand mining row, the Opposition has demanded a fresh probe against Irrigation and Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh.
The Opposition also dismissed the probe conducted by the Justice JS Narang (retd) Commission as an eyewash.
Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Khaira, in an open letter to Justice Narang, alleged that startling facts ignored by him showed that the commission inquiry was not only shoddy, but also full of deceit.
He said the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ current records showed that Amit Bahadur was a director in the company registered at the office owned by the minister. He alleged that they were the frontmen of Rana Gurjit, but the Narang commission ignored the fact.
He also alleged that Justice Narang ignored the fact that Gurinder Singh transferred Rs 5 crore to the account of Jatin Garg, nephew of Sahil Singla, who in turn transferred the amount to Rajbir Enterprises for the bidding money. He never tried to probe Jatin to find the source of such a huge financial entry, Khaira said.
The AAP leader said if Justice Narang had genuinely tried to investigate, he would have found a quid pro quo between tainted contractor Gurinder Singh and Rana Gurjit.
He said Justice Narang ignored that the minister’s employees were allotted more than the known two mines. He demanded that Narang should tender a public apology to the people of Punjab for “a bogus and premeditated clean-chit inquiry”. He demanded that Narang “should deposit back to the public exchequer money misused by him” as it was a planned case of deceit.
In a separate press release, former Deputy Speaker Bir Devinder Singh said in view of the expose linking a payment of Rs 5 crore to the mining auction, a fresh probe by a sitting High Court judge was the only option to ascertain the truth.
“I wonder how and why Justice JS Narang (retd) failed to follow the trail and the source of this huge amount which was directly linked to the sordid auctions of the sand mines,” he asked.
“This grave lapse in the probe does not seem to be inadvertent. How can an inquiry commission headed by a retired High Court Judge choose to ignore such a vital lead in the matter that was being inquired into?” he said. He alleged that the transfer of Rs 5 crore by Gurinder Singh to the account of Rajbir Enterprises clearly established his direct link to the mining auction and connected all missing dots that Justice Narang refused to follow and ignored the irrefutable documentary evidence.
Rana Gurjit must step down as a minister to pave the way for a transparent and independent judicial probe into the scandal, Bir Devinder demanded.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
