Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said today that his cabinet colleague Rana Gurjit Singh, who had offered to quit of his own, "is being wrongly judged".
"He is being wrongly judged. The Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Narang, looking into the charges against him, has not held him guilty. That he offered to resign is very honourable. I have never seen a minister resign of his own," Badal said.
Punjab Power and Irrigation Minister Rana Gurjit Singh, accused by the opposition of illegally bagging sand mining contracts, has submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who is yet to act on it.
He has been accused of acquiring sand and gravel mining contracts through "benami transactions in the names of his cook and office staff".
The government instituted a commission of inquiry headed by Justice J S Narang to look into the charges.
Besides the mining contract controversy of last year, the minister came under fire from the opposition after the Enforcement Directorate this month served a summon on his son, Rana Inder Partap Singh, for allegedly raising funds abroad for a family-owned company without the required permission from the Reserve Bank of India.
To a question on the Punjab and Haryana High Court setting aside the appointment of retired IAS officer Suresh Kumar as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's principal secretary, he said he would have to study the judgement before commenting on it.
"We want to study the order. If there is a legal defence, I think we should defend him," he said, adding that the officer was good and honest.
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