Has Bhattal been framed?

CHANDIGARH: While the dust seems to have settled down on the crisis that had gripped the Punjab Congress, one question that will still stand out is that was the corruption case against cabinet minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, manipulated?
The special court, Chandigarh, had decided to frame charges against the former chief minister for allegedly embezzeling Rs 20 lakh from the chief minister''s relief fund, when the state government put up an application on December 23 that it had "found receipts explaining the expenditure of the amount".
The receipts, the letter says, had been "inadvertently kept in another file". The state has requested the court to allow reinvestigation in the case in the new light.
The court will adjudicate on the state''s request on Wednesday.
The recovery of receipts incidentally clearly coincided with the political compromise that Chief Minister Amarinder Singh worked out with the party high command in the third week in December under which it was decided that the case against her be withdrawn forthwith as a precursor to cooling tempers of dissidents.
Significantly, the "file" containing receipts never fell in hands of the Vigilance Bureau officials who investigated the case for more than three years.
The surfacing of the crucial file has also occurred after Ashok Goyal, the then deputy principal secretary to Bhattal, during her term as chief minister, had submitted to the court that Rs 20 lakh withdrawn by Bhattal "remained unaccounted for".
Incidentally, while the prosecution had maintained all along during the arguments in the court that there were no records of "disappearance of the money", Bhattal''s counsel had also failed to specify under what heads Rs 20 lakh were spent.
The case is expected to fall flat after the court grants permission for reinvestigation.
Balwant Singh, the complainant in the case, has, however, alleged that the "receipts are fake and had been prepared to facilitate the political compromise".