MOGA, Punjab—The bad time for Shiromani Akali Dal – Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD- BJP) government continues as a local court on Monday awarded one year imprisonment to Akali Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the Moga constituency, and chairman of the Punjab Warehouse Corporation, Joginder Pal Jain and his family including his wife, younger son, and daughter. The punishment has been awarded by the court for developing an illegal colony in the city.
Previously, Jain was a Congress leader and representative in the Punjab assembly, but after joining the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Badal (B), he resigned from assembly. He was elected as MLA on the SAD ticket in Bi polls. SAD then appointed him as chairman of Punjab Warehouse Corporation.
The MLA, his wife Swaran Lata Jain, younger son Akshit Jain, and daughter, were all present in the court when the judicial order was pronounced by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sangeeta Saluja.
The Jain family was convicted by the court to a one year jail term for the abuse of Section 36, as well as a six-month jail term for the violation of Section 3 of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995. Both the terms will run concurrently. The convicts have also been imposed with a fine of ₹1,500 each. They, however, were released on bail after depositing the fine and furnishing bail bonds. Jain’s elder son Puneet Jain, who lives in Canada, had already been declared as a proclaimed offender in the case.
The case was registered against Jain, his wife, two sons, and daughter on August 26, 2007, in a complaint filed by the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) under Sections 2 (i), 3, 5, 21, and 36 of the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995, at the Mehna police station in Moga. They were charged with raising an unauthorized residential colony on the outskirts of Moga city.
Although a junior engineer of GLADA had stated in the court on February 17th that they do not wish to continue legal proceedings against Jain, the court turned down the request. Jain said he would file an appeal before the court against the conviction.
The past legal proceedings of many cases have also been held against him. A case under Sections 132 and 135 (I) (A) of the Customs Act, 1962, was registered against Jain in the late eighties. The trial court acquitted him, but the customs department filed an appeal which is still pending in the Delhi High Court.
Jain also spent few months in jail under preventive detention soon after he became MLA for the first time in 2007, under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA). Under Sections 419 and 471 of the Indian Penal code (IPC), a case was registered against him in 1988 at the New Delhi police station for using a fake passport at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
The police charged Jain under Sections 382, 384, 323, 336, 148, and 149 of the IPC and Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) Act at Moga on May 13, 2009, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him.
An FIR under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC was lodged against Jain and his aide Harnek Singh Ramuwala during the panchayat elections on May 26, 2008, at the Mehna police station on the complaint of one Guriqbal Singh.
