Senior BJP leader and former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal suffered a heart attack Sunday, and is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Bathinda.
He is stated to be stable.
Manpreet is an accused in a land scam investigation being carried out by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau. The Bureau has alleged that in September 2021 Manpreet purchased two plots of land in Bathinda’s Model Town area, one measuring 560 square yards and another 1,000 square yardsm that had been earmarked for commercial activity but were shown as residential in fake maps that the Bathinda Development Authority put up during e-auction. At this time, Manpreet was in the Congress and was serving as the state finance minister.
Apart from the allegation that the digital signatures of the estate officer, Balwinder Kaur, were used without her permission, the Bureau has also claimed that the three bidders for the plots Vikas Arora, Rajiv Kumar and Amandeep Singh who have been arrested purchased them at 2018 rates, causing a loss of Rs 65 lakh to the state exchequer.
Manpreet is accused of purchasing the plots from the three much before the BDA issued them allotment letters.
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