Mohali May 3:
In what may come as an embarrassment for the ruling SAD government, Mahilpur MLA Sohan Singh Thandal, the Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Agriculture), was today sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case.
While convicting Sohan Singh Thandal, Mohali Additional District and Sessions Judge Rajinder Aggarwal also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on the convict. With his conviction, the Mahilpur MLA has become the first Akali leader to be sentenced in a corruption case, registered by the Vigilance Bureau on April 29, 2003.
Last year, the Mohali court had acquitted Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his Deputy CM-son Sukhbir Badal and wife Surinder Kaur along with others after the prosecution failed to prove the charges in a similar case. However, the court accepted the bail plea of Thandal, thus giving him time to appeal against the judgment in a higher court. The trial in the case lasted four years, as the Vigilance Bureau had presented the challan in 2007.
Thandal was facing charges of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. The Vigilance Bureau had shown an unaccounted income of Rs 35 lakh. While he was able to prove income proof against assets worth Rs 31 lakh, the court did not accept his plea regarding the rest. A case in this connection was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act under Sections 420, 468, 467, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.
SAD leader quits post: Amritsar: The Director, Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, and senior SAD leader Sardool Singh Sham on Monday submitted his resignation to the government. There is speculation that he may join the Manpreet Badal-led People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) any time now. In his resignation letter to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Sham has alleged that disappointed with undue promotions to sychophants, he had decided to quit. “I was pained to see that those who were junior to me but good at sweet talk prospered without guilt and fear... I chose to put in my papers. Yet I will continue to work with the SAD as an ordinary worker .”
In what may come as an embarrassment for the ruling SAD government, Mahilpur MLA Sohan Singh Thandal, the Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Agriculture), was today sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case.
While convicting Sohan Singh Thandal, Mohali Additional District and Sessions Judge Rajinder Aggarwal also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on the convict. With his conviction, the Mahilpur MLA has become the first Akali leader to be sentenced in a corruption case, registered by the Vigilance Bureau on April 29, 2003.
Last year, the Mohali court had acquitted Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his Deputy CM-son Sukhbir Badal and wife Surinder Kaur along with others after the prosecution failed to prove the charges in a similar case. However, the court accepted the bail plea of Thandal, thus giving him time to appeal against the judgment in a higher court. The trial in the case lasted four years, as the Vigilance Bureau had presented the challan in 2007.
Thandal was facing charges of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. The Vigilance Bureau had shown an unaccounted income of Rs 35 lakh. While he was able to prove income proof against assets worth Rs 31 lakh, the court did not accept his plea regarding the rest. A case in this connection was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act under Sections 420, 468, 467, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.
SAD leader quits post: Amritsar: The Director, Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, and senior SAD leader Sardool Singh Sham on Monday submitted his resignation to the government. There is speculation that he may join the Manpreet Badal-led People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) any time now. In his resignation letter to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Sham has alleged that disappointed with undue promotions to sychophants, he had decided to quit. “I was pained to see that those who were junior to me but good at sweet talk prospered without guilt and fear... I chose to put in my papers. Yet I will continue to work with the SAD as an ordinary worker .”
