Former Punjab forest minister Dharamsot held on graft charges, ex-minister Gilzian also booked

The Punjab vigilance bureau on Tuesday arrested former forest minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, for his alleged involvement in corruption pertaining to the issuance of permits for cutting of Khair (catechu) trees, transfer of officials and issuance of non-objection certificates (NOCs).

According to official information, besides Dharamsot, who is a senior Congress leader and five-time MLA from Nabha, a Khanna-based press reporter of a Punjabi daily, Kamaljit Singh and Chamkaur Singh, retired range officer-cum-officer on special duty (OSD) to the minister were also arrested. The accused trio were presented before a Mohali court where they were sent to three-day police remand.

The arrests were made based on the information given by district forest officer Guramanpreet Singh, and a private contractor Harmohinder Singh alias Hummy who were arrested on June 2, 2022, for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe from coloniser Davinder Singh Sandhu in lieu of not demolishing farm houses developed by his company WWICS in the vicinity of New Chandigarh, Mohali.

According to an official spokesperson, Hummy alleged in his statement that he had been maintaining a hand-written diary regarding bribes given to senior officers of the forests department, some political leaders and their front-men from time to time since 2017 and the said diary was recovered from his place.

Stating that Hummy was into the business of cutting and selling of Khair trees after obtaining the mandatory permit for cutting from the forests department in the name of his firm Gurhar Associates, the spokesperson said that he alleged that had obtained permits for cutting of about 7,000 trees for the October-March season for which he had to pay a bribe of Rs 1,000 per tree among the minister and official.

In addition, he informed that in this way the contractor had given Rs 7 lakh as a bribe during the season. Apart from him, there were 15 other contractors in Mohali who, like him, also had to give similar bribes.

The spokesperson further alleged that former minister Dharamsot used to get a bribe of Rs 10 lakh to 20 lakh for the transfer of DFO and different amounts for officials of different levels through his OSD Chamkaur Singh and Kamaljit Singh.

Apart from this, he added that during his three-year tenure as forests minister, Dharamsot collected Rs 1 crore in lieu of issuance of permits for cutting of khair trees through his OSD Kamaljit Singh.

The spokesperson alleged that Hummy had also given Rs 5 lakh bribe to another former forests minister Gilzian through one Kulwinder Singh for issuance of a permit for cutting of khair trees at village Nada, Mohali district.