Chandigarh: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned all six accused named in a cash-for-favours case, including Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s officer on special duty (OSD), Rajbir Ghuman, to appear at its Chandigarh office on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government filed an urgent special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the high court order, seeking an immediate stay on the CBI proceedings. The agency also alleged that unreleased government notifications and internal draft policies were leaked to private beneficiaries. The CBI clarified that it had searched a residence used by the OSD, not the chief minister’s secretariat. Raids were carried out across eight locations, including the chief minister’s camp office in Chandigarh, Ghuman’s residence in Sangrur, and premises belonging to co-accused associates in Mohali, Patiala, Ludhiana, Gurdaspur, and Jalandhar.
The accused ran an organised network that manipulated IAS and IPS postings, departmental proceedings, policy framing, administrative approvals, tenders, licensing, and land-use conversions in exchange for bribes, according to the CBI FIR. “The CBI should disclose if anything was found,” he said, adding: “They may have already informed PM (Narendra) Modi that nothing was recovered and not to waste the agency’s time. The ED had flagged an alleged “cash-for-transfer” corruption scheme involving middlemen with access to government offices, influence-peddling in postings, and unauthorised handling of confidential government files.
Earlier reporting noted: Speaking to reporters in Sangrur after laying the foundation stone for a water treatment plant in Dhuri, Mann urged the probe agency to make its search outcome public. Earlier reporting noted: The CBI’s action follows an order by the Punjab and Haryana high court directing an agency investigation after criticising the state police for failing to act on Enforcement Directorate (ED) inputs. Reacting to the raids on Tuesday, chief minister Bhagwant Mann accused the BJP of using central agencies like the CBI and ED to target his administration ahead of the state elections. Earlier reporting noted: CBI should disclose if anything was found in raids: Punjab CM Sangrur: A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches across multiple locations in Punjab and registered a case against six people, including Rajbir Singh Ghuman, officer on special duty (OSD) to chief minister Bhagwant Mann, the CM said on Wednesday that his government does not shy away from investigations, adding that the central agency recovered nothing. The CBI subsequently issued summons to Ghuman and his associates for questioning on Wednesday.
