Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh alias Honey, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an illegal sand mining case, has been sent to 14-day judicial custody. Earlier, a Punjab court had sent Honey to ED custody till February 11.
Honey was arrested by the ED earlier this month under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a day-long interrogation from Jalandhar. Bhupinder Singh Honey is the son of the sister of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s wife. Their premises were raided by the central agency on January 18.
The agency had said that it seized Rs 10 crore and valuables from Bhupinder Singh and his accomplice Sandeep Kumar during the raids that continued till January 19. The action comes nearly 20 days after the ED seized over Rs 10 crore in cash, gold worth over Rs 21 lakh and a Rolex watch worth Rs 12 lakh from the residential premises of Honey and others in an alleged illegal sand mining case.
UP Second Phase Voting: In the second phase, criminal cases are registered against 25% of the candidates, Samajwadi Party on top, read the full report of ADR
The ED had announced the recovery after the two-day raid on commercial and residential premises of accused persons and their associates at over a dozen places in Mohali, Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Pathankot was over.
The central agency had also raided the premises of accused persons and their associates including Kudratdeep Singh, owner of Pinjore Royalty Company and his associates and shareholders KanwarMahip Singh, Manpreet Singh, Sunil Kumar Joshi, Jagveer Inder Singh on January 18 and 19.
The raids were also conducted at the premises of Randeep Singh, owner of Providers Overseas Consultants Pvt Ltd and its other directors and shareholders including Bhupinder Singh and Sandeep Kumar. Honey’s accomplice Kudratdeep Singh of Ludhiana and 25 others have already been booked by Punjab Police and its FIR was registered in 2018. While the ED had registered a separate case at its zonal office in Jalandhar in November last year after taking over the probe.
The ED has said that Bhupinder Singh, Sandeep Kumar and Kudrat Deep Singh set up a firm named Provider Overseas Consultancy Ltd in 2018 with 33.33 per cent stake. According to the audit report available on the website of the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the turnover of the firm in 2019-2020 was Rs 18.77 lakh.
Chief Minister Channi had last month accused the Center of misusing central agencies to intimidate him ahead of the elections. He said the Center tried and failed against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal as well. It is noteworthy that polling for the 117-member Punjab Assembly is to be held on February 20.
,