In a rather strange development, the Punjab Vigilance shied away from putting forth the report of its investigation carried out against former Ludhiana deputy commissioner Sumer Singh Gurjar in the public domain.

As directed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday, the report was submitted today but the counsel for Punjab Vigilance refused to disclose its contents in open court citing the presence of mediapersons and other advocates. He also requested the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta to read the report inside their chambers.

The Bench, however, chose to read the report in the courtroom. After going through the report, the Bench returned it to the advocate and granted the Punjab Vigilance two months to carry out further investigations.

Although the counsel for Punjab Vigilance requested the court for further time, the Bench made it clear that this was the last opportunity to complete the probe. The investigation has been entrusted to Arun Kumar Oraon, IPS, Vigilance.

The petition pertains to suo motu notice taken by the High Court of a resident’s complaint of corruption on the basis of new items highlighting the confessions of Arvind Prakash Verma, Tehsildar, Ludhiana and Salinder Singh, Naib Tehsildar, Mullapur Dhaka.

During examination, Arvind had disclosed that on each working day he collected Rs 7.5 lakh by way of illegal gratification.

Of this, 25 per cent was shared by the office staff and of the rest, Rs 2 lakh was given to DC Sumer Singh Gurjar, Rs 75,000 to ADC Kamalpreet Kaur Brar and Rs 50,000 to SDM Surinder Mohan Sharma, claimed Arvind.