Court stays arrest of Amarinder in Ludhiana City Centre case

Ludhiana, Jan 10 (UNI) A local court today stayed the arrest of former chief minister Capt Amrinder Singh till January 22 in the multi crore Ludhiana City Centre case in which he alongwith 35 others has been charge sheeted.

Besides Capt Singh, the court also stayed the arrests of his son Raninder Singh, his relative Raminder Singh Ricky and former minister Chaudhry Jagjit Singh till the above mentioned date. The three have also been named in the charge sheet by the state Vigilance Bureau that probed the scam and filed the charge sheet in the court last month.

The bail application of Capt Singh, Raninder, Raminder and Chaudhry Jagjit Singh same up for hearing in the court of District and Sessions Judge G K Rai here today. The Court after hearing the arguments of the defence and prosecution counsels stayed the arrest till January 22, when the application will again come up for hearing.

Capt Singh and the others who were granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case, were directed to approach the Ludhiana court for regularisation of their bail.

The probe in the Ludhiana City Centre scam was ordered in December last year during the tenure of Capt Singh. However the case against Capt Singh and 17 others was registered in March this year after the SAD-BJP came to power.

After the registeration of the case, Capt Singh, Raninder, Raminder and Chaudhry Jagjit Singh had approached the High Court and had got bail. They were however directed by the Court to join investigations in the case.

A number of others including officials of Today Homes and Infrastructure had executed the project for Ludhiana Improvement Trust were arrested by the Vigilance Bureau for their role in the scam. The Bureau in its charge sheet against 36 persons has claimed that money exchanged hands in the award of the construction contract for the project to Today Homes, thereby causing a huge loss to the state exchequer.

UNI XC-HS JMK1622