Thirteen years after the then Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) chairman Ravi Sidhu was booked in the infamous cash-for-job scam in 2002, a Patiala court on Tuesday sentenced him to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment with Rsone crore fine. The court of Additional Sessions Judge Pushpinder Kaur pronounced quantum of punishment on Tuesday a day after holding Sidhu, along with three others, guilty in the matter unearthed by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in 2002.
The court has also sentenced the then PPSC secretary Pritpal Singh and Paramjit Singh Pammi to four-year rigorous imprisonment along with Rs5,000 fine while another accused PS Sodhi got two years imprisonment but he got bail.
The case was registered at the Vigilance Bureau's Patiala police station under sections 420, 467, 468, 471-A, 409 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 7, 13(1) (d) (i) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Sidhu, his mother Pritpal Kaur, brother Reetinder Singh, sister-in-law Ajinder Kaur, Pritpal Singh, PS Sodhi, Paramjit Singh Pammi, Randhir Dheera, Jagman Singh, Shamsher Singh and Prem Sagar.
Pritpal Kaur and Ajinder Kaur were declared proclaimed offenders (POs) by the court. The court has acquitted Jaspal Singh and Gurpal Singh, while the other two accused - Prof Jagdish Kalra and Amarjit Kang - died during the course of trial and two others turned government approvers.
The first case was registered against Sidhu on March 25, 2002, after he was nabbed "red-handed" accepting bribe of Rs five lakh from Excise and Taxation Inspector Bhupjit Singh. The investigators had recovered Rs9.57 crore in cash, Rs8.99 crore in his bank accounts, shares and debentures, and properties that were conservatively valued at Rs12.93 crore.
During the raid, the UT police had also allegedly recovered 14 bottles of foreign brand liquor and cartridges. A separate case under Arms Act and Excise Act was registered against Sidhu in April 2002 in which he was acquitted.
In July 2013, the Ropar court had sentenced Sidhu to six years' imprisonment in a bribery case founding him guilty under section 13 — for fraudulently converting a property or service entrusted to him as a public servant for others to use - and section 7— for taking gratification other than legal remuneration — of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
At the time of his appointment as PPSC chairman in 1996 by the then Congress Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Brar, Sidhu was just over 40 with no record of public service. An alumus of Delhi's prestigious St Stephen's College, Sidhu had, before joining the new assignment of PPSC chief, worked as a journalist in two English dailies.