Troubles for former Finance Minister Manpreet Badal are far from over. After facing allegations of land grab and harassing people, a ludhiana-based businessman on Sunday alleged him of committing fraud against him and refused return Rs 26 lakh that he had taken as loan from him in March 2011.
Challenging Manpreet to rebut his charges and give clear cut answer whether he had taken the loan and why the cheque given by him had been dishonoured, the ludhiana-based real estate dealer Balwant Singh said that he had been “betrayed and cheated by Manpreet Badal”.
“I trusted him and gave him Rs 26 lakh cash after a police officer, sympathetic towards him, approached me. At that time, I was also impressed by Manpreet’s talk and felt that he was really trying to create an anti-Congress, anti-SAD alternative in Punjab,” said Balwant Singh, while addressing a Press conference in Chandigarh on Sunday.
Maintaining that he had a harrowing time at the hands of Manpreet during the last three years, he said that the PPP chief clearly told me that he was taking Rs 26 lakh as loan for a six month period only.
“He even gave me a cheque of the same amount to reassure me that the loan would be returned by him at all costs. However, now after the second cheque has been dishonoured by the bank, I realise that he never planned to repay me,” he alleged, adding that that the PPP chief gave two cheques in December 2012 and March 2013.
Stating that he did not belong to any political party, he said, “I am holding the Press conference now because I feel it is the right time to expose Manpreet Badal and ensure that I can get my money back. I also wanted to show to the people the real face of PPP chief who cheated me. I will be following up with legal action against him also.”
Balwant Singh also pointed out that he had been receiving threats and anonymous calls ever since he announced that he would hold a press conference to expose Manpreet Badal.
Manpreet, the estranged nephew of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal revolted against the party in 2010 and formed his own political outfit — People’s Party of Punjab the next year. After dismal performance during 2012 state assembly polls, he has now joined hands with the Congress and is contesting from Bathinda as Congress-PPP combine candidate against his sister-in-law and Badal’s daughter-in-law Harsimrat Badal, the sitting Akali MP.
Manpreet has alleged that the Akali Dal is placing these people who were making “false and baseless” allegations against him.