Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 19 Jan, 2022 12:21 PM
New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday confirmed that it carried out search operations at the business and residential premises of Pinjore Royalty Company, Providers Overseas Consultants Pvt Ltd and others at Mohali, Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Pathankot in connection with an illegal sand mining case.
An ED official said that during the raids, the agency seized incriminating documents pertaining to sand mining, property transactions, cellphones, gold worth over Rs 21 lakh, Rs 10 crore in cash apart from a luxury watch worth Rs 12 lakh.
As per sources, the ED raided the house of Bhupinder Singh Honey, who is the nephew of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, on Tuesday and Wednesday, seizing around Rs 10 crore in cash from his premises.
"The ED has recovered around Rs 10 crore in cash so far. The team has also found few documents which connect Bhupinder Singh Honey with shell companies," said a source.
The sources in ED have claimed that Bhupinder Singh has alleged connection with the sand mafia in Punjab.
The ED recovered a few documents during the raid on Wednesday, which confirmed that a person named Kudratdeep Singh ran two firms in which Bhupinder Singh was the joint director. The firms are basically shell companies and the ED has seized monetary transaction details in connection with them.
On Tuesday, the ED had seized Rs six crore in cash during the raids. Of this, Rs 4 crore was recovered from the house of Bhupinder Singh, while Rs 2 crore was seized from the house of a person named Sandeep Kumar.
On Wednesday, the ED team continued with the raids though the officials were tight-lipped over the search operations.
The ED case is based on a two-year-old FIR filed by the Punjab Police on March 7, 2018, naming more than 10 accused for their alleged involvement in illegal sand mining.
The ED initiated a money laundering probe on the basis of the FIR, which has been accessed by IANS.
The raids have also led to a political debate in poll-bound Punjab, with some factions accusing Chief Minister of being involved in illegal sand mining after the premises of his nephew was raided. The ruling Congress has, however, accused the BJP-led Centre of using the financial probe agency as a tool to score political points.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the sand mafia in Punjab alone runs illegal business of over Rs 20,000 crore. There are serious allegations of direct involvement of ruling Congress MLAs, their ministers and their close associates, including the Chief Minister himself.
Farmers' agitation on the borders of the national capital is likely to end soon as the Centre on Tuesday gave a written assurance on their demands. After a meeting in the evening, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spear-heading the agitation, said that they will meet again on Wednesday as they have sought some clarifications from the government on its communication.
Accompanied by a high-level delegation, Putin visited New Delhi for the 21st India-Russia annual summit. He extended an invitation to Modi to visit Russia for the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit in 2022.
For the third consecutive day, Maharashtra reported cases of Covid-19 variant Omicron, with two more in Mumbai taking the state's tally to 10, health officials said on Monday.
Police officials said that the gang of six members, including two women, began its activities just before the first lockdown in 2020. The main member, the kingpin of the racket, identified as Neeraj of Haryana's Bahadurgarh, was apprehended by the police near PVR Cinema, Sector-14, Prashant Vihar, Rohini.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Channi on Monday blamed his predecessor Amarinder Singh, Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal and the BJP for clandestinely harming the state's interests, with their sole focus on the forthcoming Assembly polls.
