Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia have strongly reacted to latest Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids conducted in Punjab.
CM Mann said that Hindu traders are backbone of Punjab's economy and have played a major role in building a "Rangla Punjab" and alleged that central agencies are being misused to harass traders and put political pressure on them. Mann said Punjabis would not tolerate such actions and that Punjab government stands with traders.
Arvind Kejriwal also criticised ED action and claimed that small Hindu traders in Punjab were being harassed through raids and Kejriwal appealed to traders not to panic and said that Punjab government and people of Punjab are standing with them.
Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia also reacted to the raids and said that traders have suffered due to ED raids while young people have suffered because of exam scams.
These statements came after Enforcement Directorate conducted another round of searches on Tuesday in connection with a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged GST fraud worth around Rs 100 crore involving mobile phone sales. According to official sources the raids were carried out at multiple locations in Delhi-NCR and Punjab including Ludhiana and Jalandhar and the investigation is linked to Hampton Sky Realty a company associated with Punjab Industries Minister and Ludhiana West MLA Sanjeev Arora.
ED is investigating allegations related to money laundering connected to alleged GST fraud case and as part of latest action ED also conducted a search at premises of Municipal Corporation contractor Amit Bajaj in Jalandhar. Amit Bajaj and his elder brother Inderjit Bajaj have been major contractors for Municipal Corporation as well as other government departments in Punjab and other states including Gujarat.
The fresh raids come about a month after ED arrested Sanjeev Arora. Arora was arrested by Enforcement Directorate from his official residence in Ludhiana on May 9 under provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 and following his arrest he was sent to judicial custody. After his arrest Arora approached Punjab and Haryana High Court and in his petition he argued that his arrest was arbitrary, mechanical, without jurisdiction and violated constitutional safeguards guaranteed under Articles 14, 21 and 22 of Constitution of India.
He sought immediate release from what he described as illegal and unconstitutional custody and also requested court to stay arrest and set aside remand orders passed after his arrest and before arresting Arora ED had conducted searches on May 9 at locations linked to him in Chandigarh and Delhi-NCR.
This is not first time Arora has faced ED action as in 2024 when he was serving as a Rajya Sabha MP ED conducted raids against him in a separate money laundering investigation linked to the alleged conversion of industrial land for residential projects. Following Arora's arrest in May this year Hampton Sky Realty Ltd, formerly known as Ritesh Properties and Industries issued a statement rejecting all allegations and the company said it had fully complied with all applicable laws in its mobile phone export business. According to the company it entered mobile phone export sector in May 2023 as part of government's focus on promoting manufacturing and exports through "Make in India" and Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes.
The company stated that facts of its business operations do not support allegations of round-tripping or bogus exports and it also said that no money had been retained overseas, hidden in secret accounts, or routed back to any person or company. Hampton Sky Realty further claimed that it was itself a victim of the alleged supplier-side fraud and denied any wrongdoing.
The ED investigation in alleged GST fraud and money laundering case is continuing with fresh searches now carried out in Punjab and Delhi-NCR.
