New Delhi/Chandigarh. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized cash worth Rs 10 crore during raids conducted in connection with the ongoing anti-money laundering probe against illegal sand mining in Punjab. This includes Rs 8 crore seized from the hideout of a relative of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi. Officials gave this information on Wednesday.
According to a statement issued by the ED, documents related to ‘illegal’ mining and property transfer in Punjab, mobile phones, gold worth more than Rs 21 lakh and Rolex watch worth Rs 12 lakh were also seized during the raids. ED sources refuted the allegations of arbitrariness during the raids. He said the action initiated on Tuesday was “done following due legal procedures and no personal remarks or threats were made during this period”.
Sources said that raids were started on a dozen locations in Punjab’s Mohali, Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Pathankot and other cities in connection with illegal mining on Tuesday, which ended in the early hours of Wednesday. He said that the raid was carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and during this time a large number of documents and electronic devices were also seized by the investigating agency.
According to sources, cash worth Rs 10 crore was also seized during the ED raid, which includes about Rs 8 crore recovered from the whereabouts of Bhupinder Singh alias Honey. Honey seems to be the nephew of Chief Minister Channi in the relationship. Sources said that cash worth Rs 2 crore has been recovered from the hideout of a person named Sandeep Kumar.
Sources said that the ED is investigating Honey’s relationship with a person named Kudratdeep Singh, who is the center of the investigation. He said that Honey and Kudratdeep are partners in a company. Opposition parties have accused Channi of being involved in Honey’s financial dealings, which the Chief Minister has denied.
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The statement issued by the ED said that the raid was conducted by Kudratdeep Singh, The Pinjore Royalty Company and its partners, Kanwarmaheep Singh, Manpreet Singh, Sushil Kumar Joshi, Jagveer Inder Singh, Randeep Singh, Providers Overseas Consultant Pvt Ltd and its directors. and shareholders, including Bhupinder Singh and Sandeep Kumar.
If sources are to be believed, the ED may soon summon the people who came under the purview of the raids for detailed interrogation. He said that several rounds of preliminary inquiries have been made from these people in the last twenty-four hours. Responding to the raids, Channi had told reporters on Tuesday, “During the assembly elections in West Bengal, the houses of several relatives of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were raided there. Now the same strategy is being adopted by the ED to put pressure on him, his ministers and members of the Congress party ahead of the assembly elections in Punjab.
Claiming no connection with the mining case, Channi said, “We are ready to bear the pressure…”. The ED had registered a criminal case in November last year in the illegal mining case. Sources said that the probe agency has found that mining activities are being conducted in non-notified areas in Punjab and ‘mining mafia’ is creating private and benami properties by laundering illegal money earned from it. (agency)