I-T raids on premises of Bhoa ex-MLA continue for 2nd day

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, October 29

Raids by income tax sleuths continued for the second consecutive day on the office and residential premises of Congress ex-MLA from Bhoa Joginder Pal and his kin. Insiders say the I-T officials have come across something bigger that they had anticipated. Sources say the lockers of Pal and some of his close relatives were being searched.

With no official word coming from the I-T Department and with the media being kept away from the proceedings, rumours of different kinds remained afloat throughout the day.

Pal was taken to a private hospital late yesterday evening after he complained of chest pain. He was kept under observation at a health facility on the Gurdaspur-Pathankot road and was discharged in the morning. The ex-MLA walked into his house around 11.30 am.

Pal is suffering from multiple ailments. In June, he was admitted to the PGI after he got bail in a case pertaining to illegal mining.

Leading party men of the area say trouble was brewing for the ex-legislator ever since he lost to AAP candidate Lal Chand Kataruchak. Despite losing, he has hundreds of staunch loyalists who are willing to bend backward to help him. This is so because when he was an MLA from 2017 till 2022, he used to openly distribute cash to village folk. His work during Covid, when he distributed hand sanitisers and masks in a big way, is spoken of with high regard even now.

Pal, who remained a municipal councillor in the Pathankot civic body before he became an MLA, also gave cash to residents of his native Bhoa, who approached him during Covid and the subsequent Assembly poll.

“The way he distributed cash during the polls pitch forked him into the limelight for all the wrong reasons. Along the way, he also made many enemies due to the highly abusive language he used. He did not spare even top bureaucrats and spoke ill of them from public platforms. He blatantly controlled each and every aspect of the sale of sand and gravel in Bhoa which in any case is a mining-rich area. He would openly say ‘the more, the merrier’. His sins have now come back to haunt him,” said an ex-MLA, who was not willing to be quoted.

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