CHANDIGARH: The man who made the winning bid of Rs 26 crore for sand mining rights at a recent Punjab government auction has filed income tax returns ( ITR ) of less than Rs 1 lakh for the past three years.The bidder is Amit Bahadur , a 36-year-old formerly employed as a cook at Punjab power and irrigation minister Rana Gurjit ’s company.Interestingly, Bahadur’s State Bank of India account shows that, as on April 1, he had a balance of just Rs 4,840.The Captain Amarinder Singh government had held its first mining auction on May 19, and the successful bidders were asked to deposit money on May 21 and 22.TOI has accessed Bahadur’s annual ITR for three years. These were submitted with the certificate of approval (CA) Bahadur provided to the mining officials on May 10.His statement shows a pattern suggesting that the account didn’t have more than Rs 18,000 to Rs 22,000 at any stage in the last one year.His main source of income was his salary of Rs 11,706, the last of which he received on March 8.Surprisingly, on May 21, Bahadur deposited the first instalment, Rs 13.34 crore, of the annual Rs 26.51 crore fee he is supposed to pay to mine at the Saidpur Khurd site in Nawanshahr, Punjab.Bahadur, a resident of Bilari in Moradabad, has kept his phone switched off ever since the controversy hit the headlines.Gurjit, who owns a sugar distillery in Tarn Taran, is the richest MLA of Punjab’s current assembly, with a declared wealth of Rs 169 crore.The Amarinder Singh government had auctioned rights to 102 mining sites through progressive bidding and earned Rs 1,026 crore.Gurjit has so far maintained that he does not directly or indirectly have a stake in the mining business and that Bahadur had quit the company when he sought mining rights.“There are thousands of employees who have worked with me and left from time to time and I cannot be held accountable for what they do after leaving my companies,” Gurjit said.The opposition, however, is saying that Bahadur is only a front for Gurjit to enter into the mining business. “Gurjit must have asked Bahadur to quit a month before the mining sites were auctioned. How can a man with a salary of Rs 11,000 deposit Rs 13 crore and win rights for mining worth Rs 26 crore?” asked AAP’s H S Phoolka, who is also leader of the opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.