Chandigarh: The Vigilance Bureau of Punjab has issued a look out notice against the former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on charges of amassing wealth disproportionate to known income sources, officials said on Friday. Channi who replaced Captain Amarinder Singh as CM when Congress was ruling Punjab will not be able to travel abroad with the LOC in vogue.
Sources said the Bureau had reasons to believe that Channi might evade their probe by leaving the country soon after they ask him to join the probe in connection with the complaint. Sources clarified that there was no case registered against Channi in connection with the complaint.
Channi has been on the radar of the Bureau for sometime since he returned from abroad. He has been accused of several irregularities in various departments and alleged to have indulged in corruption for allocation of plum postings within the government departments.
Channi, when contacted, said the Punjab government wants to keep him locked in prison under any pretext. "This is why they have been making attemp[ts to discredit me. All of our assets including the properties and bank accounts have checked already by the government," the former CM said.
He added that the present LOC is nothing but a political vendetta the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government is resorting to implicate him. It will go to any length to do it. I am ready for any kind of investigation and that is why I have returned home (from abroad), the Congress leader said.
Channi claimed that he was not scare of his arrest. He said he got calls from the Vigilance Bureau officials when he went to meet the family of slain Sidhu Moosewala's family. They told me that they will be forced to arrest him, if he meets the Moosewalas. If they want to arrest me, let them do. Let them do it in a proper manner. Not by tarnishing my image, he added.
"ED(Enforcement Directorate)/IT(Income Tax) didn't find the case of disproportionate to income against Channi but Punjab Govt found ??? Very interesting ... AAP is competing with BJP. This (AAP) is more dangerous (sic)," a Twitter user wrote responding to the development.
It is pertinent to note that Channi's nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case last year. The ED officials recovered nearly Rs. 10 crore in cash, gold worth Rs. 21 lakh and a Rolex watch worth Rs. 12 lakh from his possession in connection with a complaint on illegal sand mining.
