Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrests accused Kuldeep Singh wanted in AIG Malvinder Singh Sidhu case

Chandigarh:  The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested Kuldeep Singh, a driver in the Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs department, Punjab as his bail petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

  Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the state VB said the said Kuldeep Singh was wanted in a case registered under FIR No. 28, dated 30.10.2023, at police station VB Flying Squad-1, Punjab, Mohali as a co-accused in the case related to Malwinder Singh Sidhu, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Human Rights cell, Punjab Police who used to exploit their positions, committed fraud, blackmailing, extorting money and take illegal gratification from government employees.

    In this case two accused AIG Malwinder Singh Sidhu and Balbir Singh of village Alampur, district Patiala have already been arrested.

    He further informed that AIG Sidhu used to initiate complaints against government employees, only to subsequently withdraw these in order to blackmail them and get illicit gains, though, since 2017, he has never held positions of AIG or IG within the Vigilance Bureau, Punjab. He added that AIG Sidhu falsely identified himself as the IG, Vigilance Bureau, Punjab to a data operator working at the office of Block Primary Education Officer, Rajpura to obtain a photocopy of a government teacher’s service book.

    Giving more details the spokesperson further informed that AIG Sidhu sent a written application to the Principal, Government Senior Secondary School, Ghanour, besides on the email ID of the school and another application through above-said accused Kuldeep Singh, and received record of a school teacher. In order to verify the records of these teachers taken from the school, he took the District Social Welfare Officer, Patiala along with them to the school, and tried to get the principal to sign the two-page proforma, but the principal refused to sign on the form.

    He further informed that in another case, AIG Sidhu, through the above-said Balbir Singh, obtained the personal record of a Block Agriculture Officer in the Agriculture department at Guru Harsahai, district Ferozepur. After this, they lodged a complaint against the concerned officer in his department for possessing a forged Scheduled Caste certificate. In lieu of withdrawing this complaint, a sum of three lakh rupees were demanded from the officer, of which one and a half lakh rupees were unlawfully accepted by Balbir Singh and Malwinder Singh Sidhu. He added that further investigation into this case was under progress.