New Delhi: The Punjab Government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of anticipatory bail granted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to Raninder Singh, son of the former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, in the Rs. 3,000-crore Ludhiana City Centre scam case.

Assailing the May 24 order, which also granted bail to Raminder Singh Thakkar, son-in-law of the brother of Mr. Amarinder Singh, the government said the single judge's approach would amount to minimising the gravity of offences and denying the investigating agency an opportunity to uncover the truth.

The agency had seized valuable electronic data and the same "clearly links the respondents with the embezzlement of funds worth crores. It is submitted that more than Rs. 21 crore is shown to have been deposited in the account of respondent No. 1 (Raninder Singh) maintained by hawala agent Chetan Gupta, who has already been taken into custody."

Conspiracy meetings

As for the second respondent, the special leave petition said: "The statement of one Rameswhar Dutt Awasthi, recorded under Section 164 Cr.PC, categorically reveals that Thakkar was involved in every meeting at which the conspiracy was hatched and taken to its conclusion."

The impugned order seriously prejudiced the investigating agency, particularly because custodial interrogation of respondents 1 and 2 was essential to get to the root of the scam and to bring to book all persons involved in the embezzlement of Rs. 3,000 crore, causing tremendous loss to the exchequer, the SLP said.

As the former Chief Minister was also an accused and the two respondents were associated with him, granting them anticipatory bail would render the Prevention of Corruption Act ineffective.

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