Kharar (Punjab), June 27: A local court today issued search warrants for 16 properties owned by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his relatives in a disproportionate assets case registered against them. Duty magistrate Harjinder Sidhu issued 13 search warrants on an application of punjab vigilance bureau which had registered a case against Badal and seven others, including his wife and son, on Tuesday for allegedly amassing crores of rupees disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The residential and commercial properties to be searched are located in Chandigarh, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Balasar village in Haryana and at different place in Punjab.

The magistrate directed that a compliance report of the search warrants be submitted to the court by July 20.

The case under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against Badal, wife Surinder Kaur, son Sukhbir, a former Union minister, and five others.

Vigilance sources said the others named in the FIR registered at Mohali, near here, were Badal's former officer on special duty Hardeep Singh, his NRI nephew Narottam Singh Dhillon, Wimpy chairman Kanwaljit Singh Sidhu, Ashish Kapoor, believed to be close to Sidhu and Krishan Kumar, personal assistant of Sukhbir.

Bureau Report