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Former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab OP Soni has been arrested in the case of disproportionate assets. Soni has been taken into custody by the Vigilance Bureau for amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of income. Today, Om Prakash Soni appeared before the Special Investigation and Vigilance Bureau (SIVB) office where he was extensively questioned before being taken into custody.
Serious charge of acquiring property
Former Deputy Chief Minister OP Soni has faced serious allegations of amassing disproportionate assets. They have been asked to provide information and details regarding acquisition of property. Obviously the probe will focus on his income from 2017 to 2022.
vigilance bureau statement
A Vigilance Bureau spokesperson said that a case under sections 13(1)(b) and 13(2) has been registered against OP Soni vide FIR No. 20, dated July 9, 2023, at VB Police Station, Amritsar Range. After an investigation carried out on October 10, 2022, of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
During the period from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2022, the total income of OP Soni including his family was Rs 45,218,771 while the expenditure reached Rs 124,842,692. This means that his income from his known sources is Rs 79,623,921 or 176.08 per cent more. It is alleged that during this period OP Soni invested in property in the name of his wife Sumen Soni and son Raghav Soni. Further investigation is going on in this matter.
Political background of OP Soni
After the resignation of Captain Amarinder Singh in 2021 and Charanjit Singh Channi becoming the Chief Minister, OP Soni was given the post of Deputy Chief Minister in Punjab. Soni has previously won the Punjab Legislative Assembly elections in 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012. In the 2017 elections, he contested from the Amritsar Central seat against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Yuva candidate and lost by a margin of over 21,000 votes. He served as the first mayor of Amritsar in 1991 and was general secretary of the Punjab Congress Campaign Committee and president of the All India Mayors Council. In addition, he has been a member of the Public Accounts Committee in the Legislative Assembly and the Chairman of the Committee on Public Undertakings in the Punjab Legislative Assembly during the term 2017-18.
The investigation into the OP Soni case is expected to continue, throwing more light on the allegations against the former Deputy Chief Minister.
