Punjab’s former Education Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) senior leader Tota Singh was acquitted by the Mohali court on Wednesday in a 16-year-old Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) recruitment case.
However, the court has convicted and sentenced to three-year imprisonment the other four accused — Jora Singh, Amar Singh, Jagjeet Singh Sidhu, and Pavitter Pal Kaur — for their involvement in the case under Sections 465, 467, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Vigilance Bureau had registered a case of corruption against the former minister and other accused for alleged irregularities in the recruitment of 134 clerks in the Punjab School Education Board during 2000 and 2001 when Singh was the Education Minister in Akali-BJP Government.
The case was registered by the Bureau in 2001 and charges were framed six years later, in 2007.
Reacting on his acquittal, Tota Singh said that he was “falsely implicated” in the case, and had no role in the appointments in PSEB as it was an autonomous body.
Tota Singh was charged under Section 120-B of the IPC.