Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said his government would soon seek ‘‘letters rogatory’’ from court to procure information about alleged foreign properties of Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal and his family.‘‘Once the court issues letters rogatory (LR), we will be able to prove that the Badals hold properties in different countries. One chargesheet has been filed. More chargesheets will come,’’ Singh told reporters here.‘‘The court writes to the Union Home Ministry, which sends the case to the Ministry of External Affairs, which, in turn, sends it back to the court. The court then issues the LR, allowing investigators to approach a foreign agency for information,’’ Amarinder said. ‘‘The Centre can only delay the LR processing to some extent. They can’t just sit on it.’’While the chief minister vowed to take the chargesheet against the Badals to its logical conclusion, today’s statement virtually puts paid to any supplementary chargesheets in the near future as the LR process, itself, could take months.‘‘However, unofficially, we have got information about the properties,’’ Amarinder said. ‘‘We sent people all over the place, to US, UK, even Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, Cooks Islands. The Rs 4,300-crore figure is not hypothetical.’’On the cost incurred on such investigations, Amarinder said: ‘‘I don’t care if there’s an extra Rs 50-lakh expenditure here or a crore there but we will get to the bottom of this.’’He said after 9/11, most Western nations were geared up to check any large transactions by non-residents, which would work to the advantage of the investigators. The CM said some of the benami properties in India involved investments through offshore accounts.Indicating that the Vigilance Bureau’s role had neared its end, Amarinder said: ‘‘It’s not possible for the VB to do more. Mr (A.P.) Pandey (Chief Director of VB) and his team have done a very good job but the rest is up to me now.’’
