The Aman Sandesh Times

Thursday, Date: Mar 28, 2024 Time: 5:59 pm

E-Paper

Mohali: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by Surinderpal Singh. alias Pehelwan. a former chief engineer of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) who has been accused of a multi-crore scam.
Pehelwan had challenged the Punjab and Haryana high court’s decision of d smissing his petition for transfer of his case f’om the trial court in Mohali.
Upholding the orders of the high court, the SC bench comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia observed that it did not find any reason to interfere with the order impugned in the petition. ”The special leave petition is, accordingly, dismissed. Pending application(s), if any, shal’ stand disposed of,” the court stated.
Pehelwan had earlier filed a petition in the high court to shift the trial from the court of Additional District and Session Judge, Mohali. High Court Justice Girvinder Singh in his orders had stated that the court, did not find any ground for transfer of the trial arising out of a case registered by the police station vigilance bureau. Moha i. under sections 420.465, 468. 467, 471, and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and sections 13(1)(d) and ‘3(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988, which was presently pending in the court of the Additional Sessions Judge. Mohali.
However, in case the petitioner is aggrieved by any order passed by the trial court during proceedings of trial, which may be adverse to him, it shall be open to the petitioner to have recourse to other alternate efficacious remedies as may be available to him under law. the court had observed.
Pehelwan is also facing trial in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under money laundering charges against the former chief engineer of GMADA and others. Besides Pehelwan, ED had also named Gurinderpal Singh. Amit Garg. Gurmesh Singh Gill, Mohit Kumar and two firms – Onkar Builders and Contractors and Pajinder and Company – as accused in the case. The agency has filed an enforcement case information report (ECIP.; under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at its zonal office in Jalandhar on the basis of probe details shared by the Punjab vigilance bureau.
The ED has registered the case nearly four years after the vigilance bureau had shared the documents with the central agency in August 2017.
Sources said the documents shared by the vigilance bureau were sufficient to lodge a money laundering case in 2017. Thereafter. the ED sought more details of the case in 2017 and 2018. The vigilance shared one charge sheet and some other case documents with the central agency in July 2020, they said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *