Chandigarh: The Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) has issued a lookout circular (LoC) against former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in connection with its ongoing probe into the allegations against him of amassing assets disproportionate to his known source of income.
According to information, the LoC has been issued against Channi so that he cannot flee from the country as he is likely to be summoned by VB soon.
Corruption cases against several leader
Pertinently, on March 7 only, chief minister Bhagwant Mann had said on the floor of the House during the ongoing budget session that many Congress MLAs including Channi were under scanner in corruption cases.
Channi, a three-time MLA, was chief minister in the then Congress government from September 2021 till February 2022 assembly election after the unceremonious exit of former chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh.
It may be recalled that aside from Channi, some of his family members are also under scanner of the VB which has been investigating into the matter since the past about six months and it was alleged that Channi had favoured several contractors and his aides in transfer and other policy decisions during his stint as chief minister.
However, Channi has already told the media that he was ready for any probe and that he was not going abroad since the chief minister Mann had said that an inquiry was on against him. He went on to say that it was in this wake that he had cancelled his tickets to California where he was to attend a Punjabi NRI function.
It may also be recalled that Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey was arrested by enforcement directorate (ED) and Rs 10 crore were seized from him which he had allegedly got from mining contractors. Channi had, however, alleged that ED had acted as vendetta by Central agencies againstopposition leaders.
