Days ahead of the high-octane Punjab Assembly elections, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday carried out searches at multiple locations in Punjab, including the Mohali residence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew, in connection with an illegal sand mining case.
In all, the raids were conducted in Ludhiana, Mohali, and Pathankot districts, including the offices, residences as well as godowns of several accused companies. As per reports, about a dozen premises of the Chief Minister’s relatives have been raided by the ED officials at different places including Mohali (Homeland Heights), Ludhiana and even Panchkula (in Haryana).
The raids were reportedly conducted in a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on an FIR registered in 2018 by the Punjab Police against one Kudrat Deep Singh, the main accused, who owns a quarry in Nawanshahr.
It has been learnt that Kudrat Deep Singh had formed two companies, and the director of one of the companies was Bhupinder Singh Honey — Chief Minister Channi’s nephew.
The illegal sand mining case was initially registered by the Punjab Police at Rahon police station of Nawanshahr on the complaint of the mining officer under section 21(1) and 4(1) of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation of Development) Act, 1957, and under section 379, 420, 465, 467, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. There were 26 accused in the case, most of them truck drivers.
As per the FIR, the police had stopped 30 tipper trucks filled with sand, most of which was taken from an area that was not marked for mining. Several types of machinery were also recovered, which were not to be used for mining at the site.
However, the CM’s nephew, Honey, was not named as an accused in the 2018 FIR.
After the FIR registered by the Punjab police, the ED had initiated its investigation in the case.
The Congress has accused the BJP and its Government at the Centre of defaming Punjab and Punjabiyat by raiding a relative of Channi in an old case, and said the people of the State will give a befitting reply to the saffron party in the upcoming Assembly polls.
Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP Government is insulting a Dalit who was made the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Dalits and backward classes would not forgive the party for this. He also accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of working in cahoots with the BJP as its convener Arvind Kejriwal was the first to attack Channi over the raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Surjewala alleged that the ED has turned into the “election department” of the BJP.
“Today we saw the limit of vindictiveness. To seek revenge on a Dalit Chief Minister, the ED has been unleashed in Punjab, with which the Chief Minister and his family have nothing to do. The BJP is taking revenge on a Dalit Chief Minister. The ED is not the enforcement directorate but the BJP’s election department,” Surjewala said at the AICC press conference.
The party alleged that the AAP and the BJP are working together, adding that when the Prime Minister’s convoy was stalled in Punjab, it was the Kejriwal-led party that jumped in his defence. “Today, it was Kejriwal who gave the first statement on the raids. In Punjab, Uttrakhand and Goa, the AAP and the BJP are working together. One does a wrong act and the other supports it,” it said.
ED officials maintained that the raids were being conducted in connection with an illegal sand mining case it was already investigating. ED sources claimed that it has received information regarding the accused allegedly mining the sand illegally, making profits, and then laundering the money. Several companies and their directors are being probed in the matter.
Responding, Channi maintained that ED raids are “pressure tactics” being used to target him and the Congress party ahead of polls. “These tactics were also used during the West Bengal elections against Mamata Banerjee’s relatives,” he said.
Congress leader and media co-ordinator of Punjab polls Alka Lamba tweeted, “CBI, ED & IT raids become a tool of the BJP govt during the elections. 1. IT raid at DMK chief MK Stalin’s daughter just 2-days before the elections; 2. CBI raid at Abhishek Banerjee just one month before the elections. 3. ED raid at NCP chief Sharad Pawar just before the elections.”