4 hours Ago
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court of special judge Alka Malik has issued a notice to former IAS officer Gurnihal Singh Pirzada and others to appear in court on March 11 for hearing in a corruption case registered against him by the CBI in 2016. In 2019, the Punjab and Haryana high court had stayed the trial in this case, which has now been lifted. After this, the CBI investigation team has presented a supplementary challan against the accused in the court.
On Saturday, the court served a notice to the former IAS officer, including others. The next hearing in the case will be on March 11. The case was registered against former Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officers, Gurnihal Singh Pirzada and Sukhbir Singh Gill, first at the Sector 3 Police Station for purchasing several benami properties at different places in Mohali.
The police had registered the case under sections 13(2), 13(1)D, 420, 465, 467, 471 and 120B of the Prevention of Corruption Act against them. However, this case was later transferred to the CBI. On court instructions, a special investigation team (SIT) was formed in the case.
The SIT included officers from the CBI, income tax department, enforcement directorate and serious fraud investigation office. A total of six cases were registered against the accused by the SIT. The probe agency had applied to the central government in 2018 for a sanction to prosecute Pirzada, who retired in 2001.
In December 2018, CBI filed a chargesheet against him and a businessman Sukhbir Singh Shergill in a case of illegally acquiring land worth crores in Mohali. After getting the sanction, CBI court had issued a notice to the accused for January 3, 2020. But the accused party moved high court again, after which the court had stayed the trial.
However, recently the high court has lifted the stay order, after which the probe team has presented a supplementary challan against the accused in the CBI court..
