Punjab Vigilance Bureau sleuths on Tuesday swooped on a hatchery owned by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in Pallanpur village, about 30km from Kharar, in connection with a disproportionate assets case.
VB Superintendent of Police Amarjeet Singh declined to comment on the outcome of the three-hour search of Continental Hatchery by a 15-member team, but confirmed that no recovery was made during the raid.
"We are here only to measure the area and make assessments, not to conduct any search," the VB sleuths told reporters.
The exercise was conducted on the orders of a Kharar court and a detailed report would be submitted to the same, they said.
The team comprised Deputy SP Paramjeet Singh Khaira, five Police Inspectors, three architects and an equal number of Public Works Department SDO.
They took measurements of the property and also prepared site plans on the spot, said Badal's nephew and Mohali Shiromani Akali Dal president Harsukhinder Singh Badal.
Badal's nephew alleged that they were not shown any court orders not given any details of the raid.
He said the hatchery, started in 1972, has been 'lying defunct for the past two decades'. Though nobody visited the place, he said it was searched only to 'humiliate' the SAD president.
Former MP Satwinder Kaur Dhaliwal described the raid as 'political vendetta being unleashed by the present regime on its political opponents'.
Meanwhile, the daughter-in-law of the watchman of the property alleged that VB sleuths had raided the premises on Monday evening too.
Meanwhile, the Kharar judicial magistrate on Tuesday reserved orders for July 4 on three applications moved by the VB seeking permission to conduct more searches in connection with the disproportionate assets case against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
The VB sought search warrants for the Delhi residence of one Krishan Kumar, a personal assistant of Badal's son Sukhbir Singh Badal.
In another application, the prosecution sought permission to film and photograph the valuables at Badal's residence in Chandigarh's Sector 9 in order to bring about transparency in the searches.
It contended that many SAD workers created hurdles during the search and assessment of the said house on Saturday, following which the assessment-cum-inspection remained incomplete.
Seeking directions to Badal and his family members to cooperate with the VB, the prosecution stated it had come across valuables in Badal's Sector 9 residence, the cost of which has to be included in the assessment.
The VB has sought search warrants for another house in Sector 5, in place of search warrants procured for a house with the same number in Sector 9. The VB submitted that it had inadvertently got the house number wrong in the previous application on which a Kharar court had on Friday issued 13 search warrants for 16 different properties belonging to Badal.
However, Judicial Magistrate Baljinder Kaur Bhatia reserved the orders on the three applications for July 4.
On the complaint by Balwant Singh of Mansa district, a case under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of the IPC and Sections 13(1)(d)(e) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act had been registered against the Badals.
