The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at multiple locations linked to Punjab cabinet minister Sanjeev Arora, his son Kavya Arora and his business associates.
The searches were conducted at 13 places across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and according to officials the action is part of an investigation into suspected financial irregularities and movement of funds from abroad.
In Ludhiana ED teams reached Arora’s residence in Gurdev Nagar early in the morning and central security forces were also deployed at the site during the operation where searches were also carried out at offices and other properties linked to him and his associates in different cities.
The action comes just two days after the ED conducted searches at premises linked to Ashok Mittal in Jalandhar.
Apart from Sanjeev Arora and his son ED officials also searched locations linked to his business partners Hemanth Sood and Chandrasekhar Aggarwal.
Arora is the promoter of a real estate company M/s Hampton Sky Realty Ltd (earlier known as Ritesh Properties and Industries Ltd) which is involved in large infrastructure and housing projects in Punjab and his son Kavya Arora is currently the Managing Director of the company.
According to ED sources the company is being examined for issues such as changes in land use without proper approval, suspected irregularities in financial transactions and movement of funds through different channels.
Officials said that the probe is also looking into:
Possible violations in land use rules in Punjab
Suspected irregularities in company accounts & share-related transactions
Movement of funds from overseas locations into India
Transactions involving multiple companies and entities
Hemanth Sood who runs a financial services firm is being examined for his alleged role in handling financial transactions and fund movements and Chandrasekhar Aggarwal a businessman from Jalandhar is also under investigation in connection with the case.