Chandigarh, May 2 (UNI) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has registered a case against the son and daughter-in-law of an ex-MLA from Tarn Taran, as well as the Executive Officer (EO) and Clerk of Nagar Council Tarn Taran and the owner of a firm, for embezzlement of the Council funds. In this case, the accused EO, Clerk and a firm owner have been arrested.

An official spokesperson of the state VB said here on Friday, that in this regard a case was registered based on a Vigilance Enquiry resulting from the checking conducted by Local Government department and later the case was entrusted to the VB for further probe. Afterwards, based on the investigation an FIR was registered against the accused at VB Police Station Vigilance Bureau, Range Amritsar.

He informed that the accused involved in this case included Sharanjeet Kaur EO (Now suspended) and Narinder Kumar, Clerk, of Nagar Council Tarn Taran, Ex-MLA Dharamvir Agnihotri's son Sandeep Kumar Agnihotri and his daughter-in-law Jyoti Sachdeva, owner of M/s MK Padam Petroleum, and Rajiv Gupta, of New Pawan Nagar, Amritsar, a shareholder in M/s Sharp Focus vision Pvt. Ltd and M/s SR Enterprises Ltd.

In this case the EO and Clerk, both posted in Nagar Council, Tarn Taran and aforementioned Rajiv Gupta, shareholder in M/s Sharp Focus vision Pvt. Ltd and M/s SR Enterprises Ltd, have been arrested.

The spokesperson revealed that during the probe it came to light that fraudulent transactions were done by the said EO during the years from 2017-2022. She had made wrongful payments through cheques to M/s Sidhu Construction company, M/s Brother Construction company and M/s Friends Association from different heads.

In addition to this, by colluding with Sandeep Kumar Agnihotri, son of ex-MLA Dharamvir Agnihotri, the accused EO had issued bogus payments to his companies M/s Sharp Focus vision Pvt. Ltd and M/s SR Enterprises.

He further informed that during the checking conducted by Local Government department Punjab, the recovery was made of the above said bogus payments but an amount of Rs 27.88 lakh are still pending.

During the enquiry, it was found that Sandeep Kumar Agnihotri also got bogus payments of Rs 4.41 Crore issued in the name of M/s MK Padam Petroleum, owned by his wife Jyoti Sachdeva. Afterwards, Sandeep Agnihotri had deposited part of this bogus payment back to the accounts of Nagar Council Tarn Taran, but Rs 35.45 lakh are still pending.

After adjustment of pending bills, a total outstanding amount of Rs 1.05 Crore was found pending towards M/s MK Padam Petroleum. Apart from this, according to the department inspection report provided by the Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, EO Sharanjit Kaur had issued payments to Clerk Rajeev Kumar, (now deceased), posted at her office and above said Clerk Narinder Kumar without any bills or work orders.

It was evident from the facts that EO Sharanjit Kaur, in connivance with said Sandeep Kumar Agnihotri, had misused her position and had made illegal payments to his fictitious firms M/s. Sharp Focus Vision Pvt. Ltd. and M/s SR Enterprises. Besides this, it was also found that payments amounting to Rs 14.61 lakh, Rs 3.25 lakh and Rs 2.09 lakh were made to different firms without any tenders or quotations.

The spokesperson added that the case is under investigation and the role of private persons, who received bogus payments, would be verified during the inquiry. The accused would be produced before the competent court tomorrow.

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