Kharar (Punjab), June 14: A local court was today told that former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's NRI cousin brother Narottam Singh Dhillon, arrested in connection with a corruption and disproportionate assets case, had confessed to laundering money for the Badal family and arranging undue favours during the previous government. When Dhillon was produced for extension of his police remand, the public prosecutor informed the court that Dhillon had divulged during interrogation that he had taken Rs 1.16 crore from Badal's officer on special duty Hardeep Singh Bhamra and forwarded it to the Badal family after "recycling it from black to white" through his NRI bank accounts.
According to the prosecution, Dhillon also confessed during interrogation that he used to accept big amounts from people for arranging "undue" favours for them during the Badal regime. "After keeping his share, the money was forwarded to the Badal family," the prosecution alleged. Sub-divisional judicial magistrate Baljinder Kaur Bhatia extended Dhillon's police remand till monday.
Dhillon was arrested in Shimla on Wednesday. On Thursday, a Kharar court remanded him to police custody till today. The public prosecutor submitted before the court that on the basis of search warrants issued by the court, Dhillon's Mehrauli farmhouse near Delhi was searched but two more of his residences - in Shimla and in Badal's village in Muktsar district - were yet to be searched, for which his custody was required.
The prosecutor said when a vigilance team reached Badal's village to search Dhillon's house there, some people did not allow them do so. Bureau Report