Plot allotment case: Court issues arrest warrants against PCS officer, former Bathinda Development Authority superintendent

A local court on Thursday issued arrest warrants against PCS officer Bikramjit Shergill, and former Bathinda Development Authority (BDA) superintendent Pankaj Kalia in the plot allotment case. Shergill was then municipal corporation commissioner and BDA chief administrator when the land was allotted.

Former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Badal is one of the six accused booked by the vigilance bureau in the case.

The court of additional chief judicial magistrate Daljit Kaur in the order said that SI Harwinder Brar has given a statement in the court that the accused have been nominated by name in the present case and there is no stay on arrest by any court.

“ In view of the statement… arrest warrants of accused Bikramjit Singh Shergill and Pankaj be issued for November 10,” the court said.

Deputy superintendent of police (vigilance bureau) Kulwant Singh said VB teams are conducting raids to nab the duo.

Manpreet, who is now with the Bharatiya Janata Party, was booked by the vigilance bureau (VB) under Prevention of Corruption Act, and Sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) 467 (forging a document that pretends to be a valuable security) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC on September 24 along with five other accused including Shergill and Kalia. Three accused Rajiv Kumar, Amandeep Singh and Vikas Arora have already been arrested by the VB.

On October 16, the Punjab and Haryana high court granted interim bail to Manpreet Badal. The probe agency had summoned him to appear in Bathinda on October 23, but he sought an exemption from personal appearance for 10 days on medical grounds.

The complaint was filed by former MLA Sarup Chand Singla, who had alleged irregularities in the purchase of a property in a prime location in Bathinda city. Singla, who too had switched from the Shiromani Akali Dal to the BJP, had filed a complaint before vigilance in September 2021 alleging that during his tenure as finance minister in the previous Congress regime, Manpreet had abused his position by converting commercial plots in the Model Town into residential plots for himself.