Three weeks after Parkash Chief Minister assumed office as Punjab chief minister, the state Vigilance Bureau on Saturday registered a corruption case against his predecessor Capt Amarinder Singh and eleven others in connection with a real estate scam in this industrial city.
In a related development, the bureau sleuths arrested two officials of the Infrastructure Professional Enterprises -- Kamal Kumar Verma and Amit Sardana -- whose services were hired by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust during the previous Congress regime in the state, senior officials of the Bureau said.
The former local bodies minister Choudhary Jagjit Singh and former chairman of the Ludhiana Improvement Trust Wg Cdr (retd) Paramjit Singh Sibia were also among those facing the case.
The case, which was registered under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, relates to the Ludhiana City center coming up at the Pakhowal road.
According to the FIR registered at the Vigilance Bureau police station, Amaridner Singh had violated all norms in patronising and abetting the dilution of terms and conditions for favouring a particular party.
Police have meanwhile commenced raids to arrest those booked in the case and alerted airports. Authorities concerned had also been moved for confiscating the passports of the suspects. This has been done to forestall the possibility of their escape, officials said.
Amarinder Singh is currently away in London.
During Amarinder Singh's tenure, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP had resorted to a series of dharnas and protests against the alleged corruption in the Ludhiana City Centre project and had demanded a CBI inquiry.
The former chief minister had later dissolved the Ludhiana Improvement Trust and ordered a vigilance probe.
Soon after assuming office, Parkash Singh Badal said the rule of law would prevail regarding the LCC case and other cases of alleged corruption. The LCC affairs was a major campaign issue for the Akali Dal, which charged Amarinder Singh with colluding with a developer in allotment of a Rs 3,000 crore project being developed by Ludhiana Improvement Trust.