Amarinder Singh acquitted in decade-old land transfer case

 Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and 17 others were today acquitted of charges of corruption in the transfer of land to a private developer in a decade-old case.

The accused included former Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kewal Krishan and two former ministers. All three are dead now. Mohali Special Judge Jaswinder Singh accepted the closure report filed by the state's Vigilance Bureau (VB) while clearing the 18 accused of wrongdoing in the transfer of 32.10 acre of Amritsar Improvement Trust's prime land to a private developer. The Vigilance Bureau had registered the case against them in 2008 on the recommendation of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

Amarinder Singh, who was present in the court along with the other accused, welcomed the verdict as a "victory of truth and said justice had prevailed."It was political vendetta as the VB had acted on the directions of its then political masters," he said, in an apparent reference to then Akali Dal-BJP government. He ruled out any action against the concerned Vigilance Bureau officers. The VB had filed a cancellation report before the Special Court in Mohali in October 2016. It had also sought the discharge of all the accused in the case.

The bureau had submitted that "neither any malafide nor any offence had been committed . Also, no incriminating evidence to prove the charges whatsoever levelled had come to the fore during the fresh investigation of the case," it told the court.