CPS Valtoha, five others acquitted in job scam

A local court today acquitted Punjab Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) and sitting MLA from Khem Karan Virsa Singh Valtoha and five others in a 12-year-old case pertaining to alleged job scam in the Subordinate Services Selection Board.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) D S Johal ordered acquittal of Valtoha, who was member of the board then, and five others Tejinder Singh Sandhu, the then chairman of the board, Munnawar Masih, then chairman of Punjab Minority Commission, Kulbir Singh, Ashok Lumba (all then members of the board) and Zora Singh, then secretary of the board.
Satnam Singh Kaler, the counsel of Valtoha and other acquitted persons, said that the justice has finally prevailed and the court has given the decision in favour of his clients, who were found innocent.

"The prosecution could not prove that that there was a job scam," Kaler said.
A total of 22 witnesses, including two Vigilance Bureau officials had appeared in the case, of which 16 had turned hostile while the investigating agency failed to get any record of the three persons, who had alleged that the money was demanded from them.
Valtoha, after the court's decision, said that they were falsely implicated by the then Congress government in the case and it was a part of vendetta politics.

"We have won at last as we were falsely implicated in the case by the then government and now the truth has come before all," Valtoha said.

A case under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act was registered by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) in 2002 at Mohali after some applicants had alleged that the board members had allegedly demanded money from them.
The board had invited applications for the recruitment of two nursing tutors and one post of legal assistant. Hundreds of persons had applied for the post of legal assistant while 19 people had applied for the two posts of nursing tutors.