12 acquitted in PPSC scam

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 23

Twelve persons who allegedly paid lakhs as bribe to the then Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) chairman, Ravi Inder Sidhu, to secure jobs were acquitted by the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Deepak Choudhary today.

A case was registered against them by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in 2002 and they were charged with paying anything between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 70 lakh as bribe to Sidhu during 1998 and 1999 to get jobs. 

The acquittal came as key witnesses in the case (Prem Sagar and Randir Dheera) had turned hostile.

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Those acquitted include Upinder Sharma and retired bureaucrat and the then PPSC member, TC Gupta, who was named as an accused by the Vigilance Bureau for allegedly helping his son Rahul Gupta increase his marks in Punjabi from 46 to 67 with the help of examiner Tejinder Kaur, Reader and Head of the Punjabi Department, Guru Nanak Dev University, Regional Campus, Ladhowali, Jalandhar.

Rahul and Tejinder were also acquitted. Others acquitted are Kuljit Kaur (daughter of a former SSP), Deepak Gakhar, Subhash Gakhar, Randeep Gill, Kamal Garg, former central jail superintendent Jeevan Garg, Capt Sukhwinder Singh and Bharat Bhushan.

When the FIR was registered, at least five of those acquitted were posted as PCS officers.

The case, popularly known as the PPSC scam, made headlines following the recovery of huge cash from the lockers of Ravi Sidhu. It was alleged that he charged lakhs from candidates to “sell” seats of PCS, Executive and Judicial services, among others. Besides a corruption case against Sidhu, the bureau also lodged five-six cases against these candidates.

Sidhu was awarded seven-year rigorous imprisonment in the case in April 2015.