VB conducts financial investigation against ex-minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar

Chandigarh: The Vigilance Bureau has launched an investigation against former revenue minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar regardingh is assets exceeding beyond the sources of income. Kangar is currently the State General Secretary of the BJP. An investigation had started against him some time ago and now the matter has been handed over to a senior officer of the Punjab Vigilance Head Office. The vigilance officers have started searching Kangar's named and unnamed properties in Punjab and other states.

Particular focus is being given to the details of Kangar's tenure as revenue minister in Amarinder Singh's government. According to sources, the property records of the Kangar family have also been obtained from the revenue department. The details of their close relatives are being collected, which the Congress government has been talking about for a long time.

Vigilance has also kept an eye on the officers and employees posted with them from other departments. According to the information, vigilance may also raid one or two suspicious officials of the revenue department. A senior official of the Vigilance Bureau confirmed that the probe into Kangar's assets has been started. He said that when the investigation gets completed, the former revenue minister will be summoned, if found guilty. Vigilance is also collecting the facts of Kangar's participation in the luxurious 'outlet' opened near Handiaya.

Kangar was also in the limelight when the Punjab Cabinet on September 17, 2021 approved the appointment of Kangar's son-in-law Gursher Singh as Excise and Tax Inspector in the Excise Department on compassionate grounds. Former Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar said that vigilance is a neutral agency and he has no objection to the investigation, but he does not know anything about this investigation yet. 

He said that his father has a business and since 1990-91 and was into sheller and arat business. There was also a large fleet of buses but they had to sell the buses and the land as well.

According to the details published by Gurpreet Kangar to the Election Commission, the Kangar family did not have that many crores of assets in 2007. When Kangar won the election in 2017, he had assets worth Rs 9.36 crore and a debt of Rs 10 lakh.

When he contested the election in 2022 after being the revenue minister, his assets at that time were Rs 14.77 crore and the debt had increased to Rs 1.89 crore. Besides one Fortuner and two Innova vehicles, Kangar owns agricultural land worth 7.40 crores. In 2007, the Kangar family had jewelery worth Rs 18.40 lakh, while now it has jewelery worth Rs 75 lakh.

Report-Ravinder Meet