City Centre case put off till June 3

Legal Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 21

The Court of Sessions Judge, Gurbir Singh, on Tuesday adjourned the hearing in the City Centre case involving Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh till June 3.

Director Prosecution Vijay Inder Singla advanced arguments justifying the cancellation report submitted by the Vigilance Bureau giving a clean chit to the Chief Minister and all other accused in the case.

The arguments started around 11.30 am and continued for a considerable time after lunch break but could not be concluded.

During Capt Amarinder’s previous tenure as the Chief Minister, the City Centre project had been envisaged to develop a multiplex, a mall, leisure parks and other commercial hubs with a rooftop helipad on 25 acres in Ludhiana.

The alleged Rs 1,144-crore scam had come to light in September 2006. The Vigilance probe had begun that month, but the FIR was registered in April 2007 after the Akali-BJP alliance came to power. In August 2017, the Vigilance Bureau had filed the closure report giving a clean chit to the Chief Minister and other accused.

Earlier, the court of Sessions Judge had dismissed the plea of former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini for making him party to the case.