In a 12-year-old corruption case, Punjab’s former Rural Development and Panchayat Minister and former Vidhan Sabha Speaker Nirmal Singh Kahlon, along with four others, was found “not guilty” by the Mohali local court on Thursday.
The Court acquitted all the accused in the matter following the failure of the State Vigilance Bureau to prove the case against them beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt.
The development is significant as Kahlon and others had all along been describing the case as fallout of political vendetta. The other acquitted include the then Chief Engineer Baldev Singh, IAS Officer (retd) JS Kesar and the then Sales Manager of JCB Amit Sood.
The State vigilance bureau had filed two separate cases on May 25, 2002 against Kahlon — who is former Rural Development and Panchayat Minister, and others, for alleged corruption, fraud, forgery and criminal conspiracy in the purchase of 103 JCB machines under Sections 420, 467 and 120 B of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 13(1) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
While the Mohali court acquitted Kahlon in the recruitment scam case in May 2011, he was also discharged from the charges in another case related to purchase of JCB machines, pending since then.
Punjab Vigilance Department had filed a case against Nirmal Singh Kahlon for amassing disproportionate assets from known and unknown sources besides
taking bribe in the recruitment of 909 panchayat secretaries and drivers.