The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrested Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora in a money-laundering case related to allegedly fraudulent Goods and Services Tax transactions, ANI reported.
The arrest came after the central agency conducted searches at five locations in Delhi, Gurugram and Chandigarh linked to Arora and his company, The Hindu reported.
The searches were conducted at the office premises of a firm named Hampton Sky Realty Limited and at four premises that are said to be directly linked to Arora and his associated entities.
Unidentified officials told The Hindu that the ED had detected a large-scale money-laundering operation allegedly carried out by Arora through his company involving fake GST purchases of mobile phones worth over Rs 100 crore and subsequent exports aimed at round-tripping illegitimate funds from Dubai to India.
The officials alleged that several fake GST purchase bills had been obtained from non-existent firms in Delhi to claim fake input tax credit, GST refunds on export credit and duty drawback benefits.
In April too, the central agency had searched the offices and houses linked to Arora and his associates in Gurugram, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Jalandhar under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
The AAP leader was raided by the ED in 2024 also in a money laundering case linked to alleged misuse of industrial land for residential projects, according to The Hindu.
Punjab CM, Arvind Kejriwal criticise searches
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann criticised the searches at the premises linked to Arora.
“Today, once again, the BJP’s [Bharatiya Janata Party’s] ED has come to Sanjeev Arora’s house,” the AAP leader said on social media. “In one year, this is the third time the BJP’s ED has come to his house. And in the last month, the second time. Yet, they haven’t found anything.
He added: “I want to tell [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi ji that Punjab is the land of the Gurus, which even [Mughal emperor] Aurangzeb could not subdue….Punjab will never bow to Modi’s tactics. The end of this unethical alliance of ED-BJP will begin from Punjab itself.”
The AAP government in Punjab has repeatedly accused the BJP-led Union government of using investigative agencies to target Opposition leaders ahead of elections.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal also noted that Modi had started “conducting daily ED raids in Punjab” as soon as the Assembly elections in West Bengal ended.
“In the past few years, Modiji has dealt Punjab a heavy blow,” the former Delhi chief minister said on social media. “Punjabis have been harassed in every possible way… A raid was carried out at Ashok Mittal's place, and the very next day he was brought into the BJP. This means the purpose of the ED raid wasn’t to uncover stolen money. It was solely to break Ashok Mittal and get him to join the BJP.”
On April 15, the ED had conducted searches linked to AAP Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Kumar Mittal and his educational institutions. Over a week later, Mittal, who is the founder of Lovely Professional University, switched to the BJP.
Edited by Neerad Pandharipande
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