Ex-PPSC chairman Sidhu convicted in cash-for-jobs scam

The court of additional sessions judge Pushwinder Singh in Patiala also sentenced former PPSC secretary Pritpal Singh and Paramjeet Singh Pammi to four years each. The fourth convict, P S Sodhi, got two-year jail term.

[related-post]

The four were convicted Monday, while two of the accused were acquitted and three had died during the course of the trial. The four are guilty under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC along with Sections 7, 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act and criminal misconduct by a public servant, respectively.

A former journalist who became PPSC chairman in 1996, Sidhu had almost completed his six-year term when he was held on March 25, 2002.

A team of Punjab Vigilance Bureau had caught him red-handed in Chandigarh while accepting a bribe of Rs 5 lakh from an excise inspector in lieu of nominating him to Punjab Civil Service. The inspector had struck a deal for Rs 35 lakh. During a raid on Sidhu’s bank lockers in April 2002, Rs 8.16 crore was recovered. The major fallout of the scam was that the Punjab government cancelled the recruitments of 639 persons who had been selected during Sidhu’s tenure.