ED grills former Punjab CM Channi in money-laundering case linked to sand mining

Former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi was questioned by the ED for over six hours in a moneylaundering investigation linked to sand mining in the state officials The federal agency recorded the statement of the 59yearold Congress leader under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA and he left the Enforcement Directorates ED zonal office in Jalandhar late on Wednesday nightChanni tweeted to say he was summoned by the ED yesterday regarding the mining case I attended and replied to the queries put by them to the best of my knowledge A challan in this case has already been presented by ED in the Honble court The authorities have not asked me to come again he posted on the social media platformI was summoned by the ED yesterday regarding the mining case I attended and replied to the queries put by them to the best of my knowledge A Challan in this case has already been presented by ED in the Honrsquoble court The authorities have not asked me to come againmdash Charanjit S Channi CHARANJITCHANNI April 14 2022Channis nephew Bhupinder Singh alias Honey was arrested in this case by the agency days before the February 20 Punjab Assembly pollsA charge sheet was filed against him and others before a special PMLA court in Jalandhar on March 31 Honey currently lodged in judicial custody has recently applied for bailAccording to sources the agency questioned Channi who had earlier skipped a few summons about his links with Honey and others and about certain visits his nephew made to the chief ministers officeHe was also questioned about the allegations of certain transfer and posting of officials in the state as part of the illegal sand mining operations the sources saidWithout naming anyone former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu tweeted My fight was for Punjab and not for sand Those who ran the land sand and liquor mafia let down Punjab for selfish vested interests by looting the exchequer It is either Punjab or the mafia in the present financial scenario The fight continuesChanni resigned as the Punjab chief minister after the counting of votes on March 10 as the Aam Aadmi Party AAP swept the state pollsThe Congress leader also lost the electoral battle from both the Assembly seats he contested Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur The ED action in the case began on January 18 after it conducted raids against Honey and others and seized about Rs 79 crore cash from his premises and about Rs 2 crore cash from a person linked to him identified as Sandeep KumarThe agency had said that it recorded statements of Kudratdeep Singh Honey his father Santokh Singh and Sandeep Kumar during the searches and it was established that the seized Rs 10 crore belonged to Bhupinder Singh Further Bhupinder Singh accepted that he received the seized cash in lieu of facilitation in sand mining operations and transferpostings of officials the ED had claimed in a statementIt had said Honey had appeared before it for questioning before his arrest and tendered his statement wherein he stated that he is involved in the miningrelated activities but took an evasive approach when confronted with incriminating dataHoney Kudratdeep Singh and Sandeep Kumar are stated to be the directors of a company called Providers Overseas Consultants Pvt Ltd which was raided by the ED in JanuaryThe money laundering case was filed by the ED in November last year after taking cognisance of a Punjab Police Rahon police station Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar FIR of 2018 that pressed charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Mines and Minerals Regulation of Development Act 1957 to probe allegations of illegal sand miningIn this police FIR the ED said it was mentioned that a team comprising officials of mining department civil administration and police conducted a surprise check in March 2018 based on a complaint received at the Rahon police station regarding illegal sand miningConsequently it was found that several mines were being excavated by various machines and mining was being carried out beyond the designated area he saidAccordingly several tipperstrucks porcelain machines JCB machines etc were captured and seized by the investigating team The seized tipper or trucks were also found to be overloaded with sand the ED said quoting the police FIR The seized weighment slips having office stamps had not been issued by the office concerned and were forged Subsequently the mining operation at Malikpur mining site allocated to Kudratdeep Singh and the approval of weighment slips were stopped by the team it saidAccording to the FIR the ED said apart from Malikpur illegal mining activities were also carried out at Burjtahl Das Barsal Lalewal Mandala and Khosa