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Thursday, March 28 2024
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Whats the connection between pesticide and scotch? Ask this Punjab Babu

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Chandigarh: State Agriculture Director, Mangal Sandhu, found himself bottled up in a case that he might find difficult to extricate himself from. The Police raided his government house on Sunday night, in connection with the Rs 33-crore scam that involves purchase of 92,130 litres of pesticide Obleron, but what they found, surprised them. Sandhu was arrested soon after the raid.

Scotch whiskyPolice found 53 bottles of Scotch and some USD 12000 in different currencies during the raid. Cops had to carefully pick the scotch bottles, most of them neatly stacked in Sandhu’s cabinet. The stock included four 750 ml cases of Blue Label, five Chivas Regal bottles and four Black Label bottles, each costing Rs 18,000, Rs 4,200 and Rs 5,500 each. According to the Punjab Excise Tax, 1914, one individual can keep a maximum of six Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) 750 ml bottles at home. A penalty of Rs 1 lakh is imposed up to 20 bottles and Rs 5,000 for every bottle beyond that.

The police also recovered $11,634 (nearly Rs 7.5 lakh), and 2,290 Canadian dollars (about Rs 1.13 lakh), from Sandhu’s wardrobe. They also found Rs 4.14 lakh cash hidden in various places in his bedroom, police officials added.

The cops found papers related to five different residential properties purchased between 1997 and 2015. This includes a 2700 square-foot plot in Mohali, 2500 sq feet plot in Muktsar, 2700 square-feet plot in Tarn Taran with a market price of around Rs 5 crore.

Farmers and Congress leaders have alleged that the ineffectiveness of the pesticide led to the whitefly pest attack on 11,780 acres of cotton crop in Punjab last month. The scam was exposed by the Congress leader Sunil Jakhar last month.  

Congress has accused agriculture department of signing a contract with Bayer Crop Science without inviting tenders and questioning’s Sandhu’s limited powers to make purchases only up to Rs 10 lakh.

The Parkash Singh Badal government had removed Sandhu as director last week but he won a reprieve from the Punjab and Haryana high court. Sandhu, however, has threatened to expose the names of ministers.

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