Days after Bibi Jagir Kaur, the lone woman cabinet minister in Punjab, was jailed for five years, the Akali-BJP government led by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal got another jolt after another cabinet minister faced conviction for misusing the official machinery.
Agriculture minister Tota Singh was sentenced to one year in jail. The minister, however, got bail enabling him to approach a higher court. The court also imposed a penalty of `30,000 on him.
The court said in case the minister defaults on the fine, he would have to further undergo six months in prison. But the minister immediately paid the fine.
Tota Singh was convicted for misusing the official car of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) when he was the education minister from 1997-2002 in the then Akali Dal government.
The case was registered during the Congress regime in 2002. Additional district and sessions judge Rajinder Aggarwal, however, acquitted him of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The judge said the accused had misused cars of the PSEB and had caused a huge loss to the board.
‘The funds of the board are meant to be spent for the welfare of the students. A minister has to lead the others by example. When the person who is at the helm of affairs conducts himself in such a manner, others are bound the follow him,’ the judge said.
On Singh’s role, the court said: ‘Such a person loses the authority to control others.’
Singh was inducted as the agriculture minister in the Badal cabinet this year. The minister’s name had also figured in a scam regarding recruitment of clerks in the education department.
He is the second minister in the Akali-BJP coalition government in the state to be convicted and given a jail term after senior minister Bibi Jagir Kaur.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2140239/Punjab-minister-sentenced-jail-car-misuse.html#ixzz1u77157Ze
News Source: Mail Online India
