Punjab wireless scam: CBI court gives nod to close case

The Special CBI court gave a green signal to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to close the infamous multi-crore Punjab wireless scam after a closure report was submitted for a second time on December 7.

The CBI officials were not able to prove the forgery of the documents and due to lack of evidence, the closure report was submitted by CBI.

The arguments of the case were held, on Thursday, and it was allowed by the special CBI court that the case may be closed.

The multi-crore scam hit headlines in 2006 when the CBI had registered a case against senior police officers.

These officers were accused of embezzlement of crores of rupees between 2000 and 2003 in alleged connivance with wireless suppliers. The case was transferred to CBI on May 30, 2006 as per the directions from Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In the FIR registrant with CBI, names of the then DGP-cum-commandant (Punjab Homeguards) K K Attri, former ADGP (Vigilance) Izhar Alam, former IG (Crime) G D Pandey, former DIG (Intelligence) R P Singh and former SP (Lokpal) Malvinder Singh Sidhu, besides former ADGP D R Bhatti, former ADGP S C Jain and IG R C Prasad, who has since passed away. All the officers were booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

These officers were serving in the communication and wireless (C&W) wing when the misappropriation had been committed. The officers had allegedly connived with private firms dealing in wireless sets, embezzling money to buy substandard sets.

The officers had billed Rs 2.77 crore as costs of the wireless sets when actually Rs 18 lakh-19 lakh was paid to purchase low grade instruments which did not meet specifications laid down by Directorate of Coordination (police wireless) set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Two local lawyers had moved the High Court alleging large scale irregularities.

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