Mohali, November 3 — A Mohali court on Monday disposed of an application filed by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) seeking a production warrant of suspended DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar in a disproportionate assets (DA) case.
Bhullar, who is currently in judicial custody at Model Jail, Chandigarh, had already been formally arrested by the Vigilance Bureau on October 31 in the DA case while lodged in jail.
Dismissing the VB’s plea, the court termed the application “infructuous”, granting the agency liberty to move a fresh one when required.
The order observed that since both the CBI and the Vigilance Bureau require custodial questioning of the accused, the matter could be resolved by allowing the VB to proceed once the CBI’s police remand ends. “As of now, the application is dismissed as infructuous, as the circumstances have changed since the filing of the present application,” the court said.
In its reply, the CBI informed the court that it has police custody of Bhullar till November 6. The agency further alleged that the Vigilance Bureau had filed a parallel FIR on identical allegations to “frustrate the ongoing CBI investigation.”
The CBI also pointed out that the VB’s move was contradictory, as it claimed to have arrested Bhullar during a jail examination on October 31 without prior permission, and later sought his production warrant on November 1.
