Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday flayed attempts to politicise the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) case with unsubstantiated charges against his son-in-law.

Amarinder said that his son-in-law, Gurpal Singh, “is a minority shareholder with a mere 12.5 per cent share in Simbhaoli Sugars, and is being unnecessarily dragged into the controversy”.

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In a statement issued here, the Chief Minister said that as per his information, “the alleged fraud, which was at the centre of the case, had been the subject matter of court proceedings before the DRT (Debts Recovery Tribunal) in a recovery suit filed by the Bank, which was settled between the company and the OBC, and was recorded by DRT, Lucknow by way of a consent order dated March 16, 2015”.

The Chief Minister said he had been told that Gurpal Singh had even refused to sign any documents to give any personal guarantee against the loan in question, forcing the OBC to amend the loan document on February 12, 2015, thus waiving off the requirement of Gurpal Singh’s signature on any guarantee documents.

“Political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are targeting Gurpal Singh only because of the Simbhaoli director’s personal relationship with me,” Amarinder said, lambasting them for making baseless allegations without bothering to verify the facts, only to secure political mileage.

“The fact is that Gurpal had actually been litigating against Simbhaoli Sugars, for his rights as Director and shareholder, before the National Company Law Tribunal, as he had been kept out of all major decisions and the working of the company, which was reportedly a matter of court record,” said the Chief Minister.

“In the circumstances, and given these facts, the political attack on my son-in-law is ludicrous, adding that even a cursory check of the case background would have revealed that Gurpal had no role in the entire affair,” he pointed out.

“It is evident that the issue is being deliberately sought to be politicised, with the farming community also being unnecessarily dragged into the whole affair,” Amarinder added.

The CBI, on February 22, booked Gurpal and 12 others including Simbhaoli Sugars’ chairman Gurmit Singh Mann, CEO G.S.C. Rao, CFO Sanjay Tapriya, executive director Gursimran Kaur Mann and other company officials along with some bank officials in connection with an alleged bank fraud case involving the Simbhaoli Sugars Limited and the OBC.