Corruption case: After Sumedh Saini, WWICS chief Davinder Sandhu held

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 19

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau today arrested WWICS Director Davinder Sandhu, who has been named a co-accused of ex-DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, in a corruption case.

Ex-DGP Sumedh Singh Saini’s Rs 6.4 crore ‘shady’ transaction

• The VB says they arrested Saini in connection with an FIR registered on Sept 17, 2020, in a corruption case
• Nimratdeep Singh, PWD executive engineer, had reportedly rebuilt a house in Sector 20-D, Chandigarh, in Sept 2017 with ‘Rs6 crore bribe’ given by WWICS Director Davinder Sandhu
• On being questioned, Nimratdeep said Saini was staying as a tenant there since Oct 15, 2018, and paying Rs2.5 lakh per month as rent
• The VB says Saini had transferred Rs6.4 cr to Nimratdeep and his father Surinderjit from Aug 2018 to Aug 2020, which was not in accordance with the rent deed

A day after arresting Saini, the Vigilance Bureau (VB) in its first official release said they arrested Saini in connection with an FIR registered on September 17, 2020, under Sections 409, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC and 7(A)(B)(C) and 7-A, 13(1) r/w 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Saini was nominated as the accused on August 2 this year.

The VB further said the Director of WorldWide Immigration Consultancy Services (WWICS) Estates Pvt Ltd colluded with Deputy Director Ashok Sika PCS, now retired, Senior Town Planner Sagar Bhatia, now retired, and other officials and illegally converted an agricultural land into residential colonies named Green Meadows-1 and Meadows-2 at Kurali in Mohali by fraudulently hiding the actual facts and showing fake documents pertaining to 2013.

During probe it was found that Sandhu was known to Nimratdeep Singh, executive engineer of PWD who is well known to higher authorities. Nimratdeep reportedly received Rs 6 crore as bribe from Sandhu to get the colonies certified.

Thereafter, Nimratdeep, his father Surinderjit Singh Jaspal and their aides Taranjeet Singh Aneja and Mohit Puri had also been nominated as accused in the land use conversion case.

The VB said during investigation, it came to light that Nimratdeep had purchased a two-kanal house (No. 3048) in Sector 20-D of Chandigarh and rebuilt it in September 2017 with the same bribe money of Rs 6 crore. On being questioned, he revealed that the former DGP had been residing as a tenant on the first floor of the house since October 15, 2018, and paying a rent of Rs 2.50 lakh per month.

The Vigilance Bureau said after analysing the financial transactions of Surinderjit Singh Jaspal and Sumedh Singh Saini’s bank account, it was revealed that Saini had transferred Rs 6 crore and Rs 40 lakh to Nimratdeep and Surinderjit in their bank accounts from August 2018 to August 2020. This amount was not given in accordance with the rent deed.

A VB spokesperson said Nimratdeep and his father further presented a new fact after conspiring with Saini that the latter wanted to purchase the house for which they had done a verbal agreement with him. But as the new facts emerged during the probe, the father-son duo furnished a copy of a fake agreement to sell the house, which was executed on October 2, 2019, in order to prevent attachment of the property in a local court.

This agreement was reportedly signed between Saini and Surinderjit on a plain paper without any testimony.