Punjab unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday demanded CBI inquiry into defrauding of Rs2800 crore of public exchequer by Fastway Transmissions Services (P) limited and its allied companies.
The party claimed that Fastway company was being “controlled by Gurdeep Singh Jujhar and his associates in Punjab, in connivance with the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal during the past eight years since the cable mafia became active”.
The entire northern region — Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and parts of Haryana — have come under the monopolistic and illegal control of Fastway Transmissions Services (P) limited and their allied companies since 2008-2009, alleged AAP’s Punjab unit spokesperson Sukhpal Khaira and senior leader Kanwar Sandhu.
They alleged that evasion of income tax or TDS, service tax, entertainment tax, pole usage charges and optical fiber cable laying and road cutting charges is in violation of the Finance Act, 1994, and various other Union and State laws. “The total tax evasion by Fastway and its allied companies in Chandigarh, HP and parts of Haryana, besides Punjab could be to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore,” they said.
Khaira said that the party is writing to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley demanding a probe by the Economics Offences Wing of the CBI.
Besides, it seeks immediate arrest of Gurdeep Singh and others as per Section 91 (1) read with Section 89 (1) (i) and (ii) of the Finance Act, 1994. “In case of Fastway Company and its contracted cable operators, the evasion of service tax in Punjab alone is more than Rs 800 crore,” they alleged.
Sandhu said that while on paper, there are a few dozen multi-system operators (MSOs) in Punjab, in actual fact, Fastway Company holds near complete monopoly, which has enabled it to impose Media Emergency as and when desired.
In the same breath, AAP also severely condemns the “undeclared emergency being imposed on electronic media by the Badal government”.
AAP also demanded “immediate withdrawal of the blackout of Zee Punjabi network from the cable network in the state by the said Fastway cable mafia operating under the patronage of the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal”.
“In view of gross tax evasions and fraud, we demand an immediate CBI inquiry, which should also probe the role and connivance of Sukhbir Badal, besides the arrest of Gurdeep Singh Jujhar,” they said.