The graft case against Congress leaders and former Punjab forest ministers Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Sangat Singh Gilzian was registered following disclosures made by a district forest officer (DFO) and a private contractor who were arrested by a the Vigilance Bureau in a corruption case earlier this month. A diary allegedly containing startling revelations about rampant corruption to the tune of crores of rupees in forest department was also recovered by the VB following which Dharamsot was arrested at about 3am Tuesday.

The VB had arrested Mohali DFO Gurmanpreet and contractor Harmohinder Singh Hummy on June 2 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from the representatives of World Wide Immigration Consultancy Services for favouring the firm in a project. The firm’s director, Davinder Singh Sandhu, had uploaded a video on the CM’s anti-corruption helpline, showing the accused accepting the bribe for allegedly facilitating the sale of illegal farmhouses at Masaul and Tanda villages.

A n FIR lodged by the VB also names former minister Sangat Singh Gilzian, who was the forest minister in the Charanjit Singh Channi-led government, apart from Dharamsot. Others named in the Fir include IFS officer Amit Chauhan, Gurmanpreet Singh, forest guard Dilpreet Singh, Chamkaur Singh who was then OSD to Dharamsot, Khanna resident Kamaljit Singh, Kulwinder Singh, PA to Gilzian, and one Sachin Kumar.

Apart from Daharamsot, Kamaljit Singh and Chamkaur Singh have been arrested, Punjab Vigilance Bureau’s Chief Director Varinder Kumar said.

During questioning, Harmohinder revealed that he had been maintaining a handwritten diary regarding bribes given to senior officers of the forests department, political leaders and their front men from time to time since 2017. The dairy has been recovered from his place.

As per the VB officials, the former ministers and the other accused were involved in large scale corruption running into crores where kickbacks were received for cutting of khair trees, transfer of officers and other officials of the forest department, issuing of no objection certificate (NOC ) for various projects, purchase of tree guards, plantation of saplings, putting up barbed fencing, leveling the hillocks and facilitating illegal mining.

The Indian Express explains the alleged graft saga, as mentioned in the FIR.

Dharamsot got Rs 500 per tree that were to be cut.

During investigation, it was found out that Dharamsot, during his tenure forest minister for three years, received Rs 1 crore from Harmohinder for issuing permits for cutting of Khair trees. Kamaljit Singh, a local journalist and a resident of Khanna, has been identified as president of Shiv Sena and had Punjab Police security, read the FIR. Kamaljit Singh used to receive money on Dharamsot’s behalf.

Bribes paid from top to bottom

The FIR states that Harmohinder, a private contractor had set up his firm Gurhar Associates and for the last five years had been taking contracts to cut Khair trees during October to March. The FIR states that forest department officials took bribes from Harmohinder for issuing permits for cutting trees. “…it was found that the accused took permits to cut 7,000 trees out of which Rs 500 per tree used to be given to Dharamsot, Rs 200 to Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), and Rs 100 each to Range Officer, Block Officer and Forest Guard,” reads the FIR, quantifying the bribe amount per season at Rs 70 lakh. The FIR noted that “there are 15 other contractors in Mohali for cutting khair trees from whom also bribe is taken in similar way and those who refuse to pay bribe, the contractors are either not given permit or are harassed after issuing permits and threatened of imposing heavy fines”. The investigations also revealed that IFS Amit Chauhan, who remained posted as Ropar DFO, allegedly took Rs 5.8 lakh bribe from Harmohinder for issuing permit to cut 1,160 trees in Badiali Kalan sub-division of Anandpur Sahib at the rate of Rs 500 per tree.

During probe, it was found that Dharamsot took a bribe of Rs 10 to 20 lakh in transfers, based on the divisions where transfer was sought. The rates for transfer of range officers ranged from Rs 5 to Rs 8 lakh, of block officer around 5 lakh and of forest guard from Rs two lakh to Rs three lakh. The FIR noted that “this bribe was collected from the officials by Dharamsot’s OSD Chamkaur Singh and Kamaljit Singh with the consent of the minister”.

The investigation revealed that Dharamsot through Chamkaur and Kamaljit received “graft in a big way” for issuing NOC to gives access passages to colonizers, new fuel stations, new private projects and hotels and restaurants that were being built newly.

8,000 tree guards were purchased during the tenure of Gilzian as forest minister, and as per VB investigation, he received kickbacks to the tune of Rs 6.40 crore. The tree guards, as per VB, were purchased from Sachin, an acquaintance of Gilzian. Harmohinder, as per the FIR, said that Gilzian introduced him to all the DFOs of Punjab by calling their meeting and said all the tree guards were to be supplied by Sachin. The price of one tree guard was fixed at Rs 2,800 out of which Gilzian got Rs 800 commission per tree guard, read the FIR. Harmohinder, VB said, paid another bribe of Rs 5 lakh to Gilzian’s OSD Kulwinder Singh after the minister through DFO Amit Chauhan demanded the same for a permit issued to cut khair trees in Naadha village of Mohali district. Harmohinder, as per FIR, “after making requests” had managed to prevail that he will pay remaining Rs 5 lakh to Chauhan later.

Factory that purchased khair trees ‘has no licence’

The VB probe noted that there was a factory — D K Industries — which purchased khair trees and which “did not have any license”. It further pointed out that the factory is owned by one Bidhi Chand “who purchases stolen khair trees and those cut without permit”. The FIR said “Amit Chauhan has a big hand in the factory”.

The FIR said Chauhan, in connivance with the former ministers booked in the case, got illegal mining worth Rs 40 to 50 crore done on 486 acres of forest land in Jindapur village near Bela Roopnagar in one month alone which led to formation of 40 to 50-feet deep craters. The FIR also pointed out alleged large scale irregularities by forest department officials in plantation of saplings, “bogus expenditure” made on barbed fencing and leveling hillocks and changing the natural characters of hillocks by receiving crores of rupees in bribe. It said “a known contractor used to be given the contract to plant new saplings, who used to deposit the money to the nursery and after giving 20 percent commission to the nursery, used to take back remaining 80 percent of the money in cash, which was then divided between the officers/officials of forest department and the contractor.

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