Patiala, April 26: A CBI court today granted bail to former IAS officer Mandeep Singh in panchayat secretaries recruitment scam case, in which Punjab Assembly Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon is also an accused.
Judge Balbir Singh granted bail to Mandeep, a former director in Panchayat and Rural Development Department of Punjab during the SAD-BJP government between 1997-2002 on a personal and surety of Rs 50, 000 each.
Mandeep appeared in the court which had exempted Nirmal Singh Kahlon, currently the Punjab Assembly Speaker, from personal appearance today.
The lawyer of Kahlon, Satnam Singh Kler, informed the court that his client was busy with duties in his capacity as MLA of Fatehgarh Churian of Gurdaspur district.
Kahlon and 14 others including Mandeep Singh and J S Kesar Singh, former IAS officers, have been facing charges of corruption, cheating, forgery and abuse of their official position while serving during the previous SAD-BJP government.
The case was registered in June 2003 for alleged irregularities in the selection of 909 panchayat secretaries during 1997 to 2002.
Kahlon was Punjab”s rural development and panchayats minister at that time and Kesar as principal secretary-cum-financial commissioner (Rural Development and Panchayats).
Kesar retired some time ago.
The complaint was filed in 2003 by the then director (Rural Development and Panchayats) in 2003 and later transferred to the CBI for investigations.
The agency claimed that large sums of money changed hands during the selection process. Though the director (Rural Development and Panchayats) was the appointing authority for the post of panchayat secretary, the minister, his private secretary and the financial commissioner took undue interest in the matter.
The investigations revealed that “forgery and destruction of original interview marks lists was done, in order to select candidates of their choice.
“The accused public servants did not follow legal advice based on relevant judgments of the Supreme Court, for fixing percentage of interview marks,” the agency said.
“A number of other irregularities were also committed by the accused public servants in order to facilitate selection of candidates of their choice,” the CBI alleged.
The accused approached the Supreme Court against the CBI investigations but the apex court turned down the plea in October 2008.
The Punjab government denied sanction for prosecution against the accused, including Kahlon. But the Punjab and Haryana High Court in March 2008 said that no sanction for prosecution was required by the CBI against the accused, including the former minister.
——-PTI