In another setback to Punjab’s former Cabinet Minister Rana Gurjit Singh, the Income Tax Department on Friday raided his offices of Rana Group of Companies — owned by his family — in Sector 8, Chandigarh.
The raid, that started at about 9:30 am, was conducted by five officials from the ludhiana office of the Income Tax Department.
The employees and officials of various companies under the Rana Group of Companies were not allowed to enter the premises after the raid started. The companies include Rana Sugars, Rana Polycot, Rana Distilleries and Rana Informatics.
The richest legislator in the present House, Rana Gurjit has business interests in liquor and sugar manufacturing. He is considered close to Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who had all along defended him despite the corruption controversies around him.
Rana Gurjit was forced to resign as Power and Irrigation Minister from the Congress Government, headed by Capt Amarinder, the previous month owing to the controversy over the multi-million rupee mining scandal.
Capt Amarinder was reluctant to accept Rana Gurjit’s resignation but the Congress high command forced him to resign.
Rana Gurjit and his family-owned companies are facing allegations of corruption and money laundering.
He had courted controversy in the past few months in the multi-crore sand mining auctions done by the Amarinder Singh government which came to power in March last year. People associated with Rana Gurjit and his companies had bagged multi-crore rupee sand mining contracts in May last year, including his former cook.
It was alleged that these people were just fronts for the minister and his companies and the sand mining contracts were picked up through benami means.
A one-man commission headed by retired Justice JS Narang had given a ‘clean chit’ to Rana Gurjit in the sand mining auction controversy last year.
Rana Gurjit’s son, Rana Inder Pratap Singh, who is a director in the company, was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last month in Jalandhar over allegations of raising Rs 100 crore abroad without taking permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The ED had earlier issued summons in the matter to the minister's son.
Saying that Rana Gurjit is a “compulsive law breaker” of the nation who has done bank frauds, mining scams and is on the radar of Enforcement Directorate, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MlA Sukhpal Khaira on Friday said that he must be punished for his deeds.
“It’s a case of flogging a dead horse...Rana Gurjit is dead politically. His political career has come to an end, and today, the Income Tax Department is conducting a raid on his companies in Sector 8 Chandigarh,” he said.
Khaira said: “I feel it’s plain...you reap what you sow.”