Chandigarh. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested Punjab Industries, Investment Promotion and Power Minister Sanjeev Arora in a major action against him in a case of alleged money laundering, fake exports and foreign exchange violations. ED teams simultaneously raided several locations in Chandigarh, Delhi, Gurugram and Punjab. During the action, security arrangements were tightened around the minister’s residence in Sector-2, Chandigarh and the police sealed the area.
After ED’s action, Aam Aadmi Party has come out in support of Sanjeev Arora. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, reacting to the attack, termed the action as political. He said that for the third time in a year and second time in a month, ED raided Arora’s premises, but nothing was achieved. Mann said that Punjab is not going to bow down to any pressure.
According to sources, around 20 member ED team had arrived in eight vehicles. The investigating agency conducted search operations at several places including Sanjeev Arora’s government residence, office and the premises of his family-related company ‘Hampton Sky Realty Limited’. After the search, Arora was taken into custody.
ED alleges that fake GST purchases of mobile phones worth more than Rs 100 crore were shown through the company. According to the investigating agency, Input Tax Credit (ITC), GST refund and duty drawback were taken advantage of by preparing fake purchase bills from many shell companies of Delhi. After this, the illegal money was allegedly brought back to India by ’round tripping’ through Dubai, causing huge loss to the government exchequer.
Taking major financial action in this case, ED has also temporarily attached the bank accounts and immovable properties of Hampton Sky Realty Limited and its associated entities. According to the investigating agency, this action has been taken under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Income Tax Act in the case related to alleged fake exports of Rs 157.12 crore.
The bank accounts and assets concerned have been frozen for 180 days. The investigation also revealed that out of the total alleged exports, transactions worth Rs 102.50 crore were made through only two UAE-based entities. ED suspects that these transactions were used for illicit money flow and violation of foreign exchange rules.
Comments are closed.