On 22 May, the Panjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) registered a First information Report (FIR) against 26 persons, including Managing Editor of the Ajit Group of Publications Barjinder Singh Hamdard and Indian Administrative Services officer Vinay Bublani. The case is on the misappropriation of $3.2M in the construction of the $37M Jang-e-Azadi Memorial project at Kartarpur. Spread over 25 acres, the mega project was initiated by the SAD-BJP govt. Hamdard was instrumental in the conception and construction of the project since 2012 but quit as member secretary of the Jang-e-Azadi Memorial Foundation and as its managing committee president in April 2023 after the VB started the investigation into the matter. The VB has arrested 15 persons — Ludhiana-based builder Deepak Singal and 14 officials of the PWD — in connection with the case. Meanwhile, Hamdard has gotten a relief from the Punjab and Haryana High Court for a week. Bublani is currently the Director General school education. He is absconding. Several political leaders have come in support of Barjinder Singh Hamdard. Leader of Opposition in Panjab Assembly Partap Bajwa reached out to the Election Commission of India, urging them to issue directions to the govt. to prevent retaliatory action against Hamdard. ‘This is a worrying trend of using state machinery to suppress the voice of the media,’ he said. Panjab BJP head Sunil Jakhar also wrote to ECI alleging the Panjab govt. was persecuting Hamdard because he did not give in to their pressure to publish promotional propaganda in his newspaper. On 23 May, the ECI sought a report from Panjab Chief Secretary on the FIR registered by VB in Jang-e-Azadi Memorial case.
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