DA Case: Punjab government gives nod to prosecute Faridkot ex-MLA Kiki Dhillon

The Punjab government has granted sanction to the state vigilance bureau to prosecute former Congress MLA from Faridkot Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon alias Kiki Dhillon in a disproportionate assets case.

VB on Friday had submitted a supplementary chargesheet in the court of additional session judge Rajeev Kalra to place on file the prosecution sanction received from the secretary of Punjab Vidhan Sabha against accused Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon.

The prosecution was sanctioned under Section 197 (prosecution to public servants) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in FIR registered at Ferozepur range VB police station.

Dhillon is lodged in Patiala jail under judicial custody till August 10, when the matter is listed for the next hearing.

Since the arrest in the disproportionate assets case, Dhillon is lodged in jail. Former MLA’s bail application was rejected by a Faridkot court, following which he moved a bail application in the Punjab and Haryana high court. The arguments were heard on the bail application by the court of Justice Vikas Bahl on Wednesday, and the matter was adjourned for Thursday.

On July 13, VB had filed a 1,158-page chargesheet against Dhillon in a disproportionate assets case claiming that during the investigation, it was found that he spent 242% more than his known sources of income from 2017-2022 when he was the MLA.

On May 16, VB had arrested Dhillon for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Following an inquiry, VB had booked Dhillon and his two aides, Gursewak Singh and Rajwinder Singh, under Sections 13(1) (b), 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

VB, in the first chargesheet, had claimed that the bureau has conducted a thorough investigation of 57 assets linked to Dhillon and verified the assets accumulated by the accused beyond his known sources of income during his five years tenure as Faridkot MLA from 2017-2022. “During the course of the investigation, it has been established that the total income of the accused during the check period was ₹3.18 crore, and expenditure was ₹10.72 crore, which is 242% more than his income,” VB has said in its chargesheet.

“Dhillon has incurred ₹7.53 crore more than his known sources of income in the past five years,” VB added in the chargesheet.

Punjab Vigilance Bureau on July 28 had submitted a supplementary chargesheet in the court against the former Congress MLA. Confirming the development, senior superintendent of police (SSP-VB) Ferozepur range Gurmeet Singh had said that additional documents and evidence were submitted in the court against the accused.

Along with former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, 10 ex-ministers during Congress regime are facing vigilance probe.

The ex-ministers are Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Vijay Inder Singla, Sunder Sham Arora, Gurpreet Kangar, Brahm Mohindra and Sangat Singh Gilzian.

Apart from Kiki Dhillon, ex-MLAs under vigilance scanner are Kuldeep Vaid, Satkar Kaur and Madan Lal Jalalpur.