Amidst an ongoing campaign against corruption in the state, Punjab’s Vigilance Bureau (VB) has registered a Disproportionate Assets (DA) case against Bharat Inder Singh Chahal, a former media advisor to former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Disclosing the details about the case in Chandigarh on Thursday, an official spokesperson of the bureau said that an FIR dated 02-08-2023 under sections 13(1) B, 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act had been registered against BIS Chahal at Police Station VB, Patiala Range.
According to the official, during the check period from March 2017 to September 2021, the income of former media advisor Chahal and his family members was Rs 7,85,16,905 against an expenditure of Rs 31,79,89,011, which exceeded his known sources of income by almost 305 percent. Chahal, who was part of the Captain’s Cabinet, had acquired properties in the names of his family members as well as in his own name. “This is just the beginning of the probe as the vigilance has to verify many more properties purchased under different names, including those of family members and relatives.”
Some of these properties include the Dashmesh Luxury Wedding Resort (Alcazar) situated on Patiala’s Sirhind Road, a five-storey commercial building measuring 2,595 yards (an Animal Husbandry Dept site) situated on Mini Secretariat Road Patiala, as well as 72 canals 14 marla land in Kalyan village near the Toll Plaza on Nabha road. Apart from this, Chahal reportedly also bought lands at villages of Malaheri and Harbanspura in Fatehgarh Sahib district, the official added.
Chahal had evaded the vigilance for more than six months on the pretext of health issues, later joining the probe after taking interim relief from the High Court. The bureau had December last year issued a lookout circular (LOC) against him. The agency inspected Chahal’s Alcazar marriage palace on Patiala-Sirhind Road this January to ascertain the value of the property and measured the shopping complex he owns near the mini-secretariat. In 2007, Chahal was booked for corruption and faced a probe during the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP rule.