The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey Jalandhar on Thursday evening following day-long questioning in an illegal sand mining case.
ED officials said Honey was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) late at night, a relative of state Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, and others in connection with an alleged illegal sand mining case.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized more than ₹10 crore cash, gold worth above 21 lakh and a Rolex watch worth ₹12 lakh from the residential premises of Bhupinder Singh Honey.
The Enforcement Directorate declares the recoveries after it concluded its two-day raid conducted at the business and residential premises of the accused persons and their associates in over a dozen places in Mohali, Ludhiana, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Pathankot.
The ED raids went on from 7.30 am till late night on Tuesday and it again started on early Wednesday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The federal agency said it raided the premises of the accused persons and their associates including Kudratdeep Singh, the owner of Pinjore Royalty Company, and his partners and shareholders Kanwarmahip Singh, Manpreet Singh, Sunil Kumar Joshi, Jagveer Inder Singh.
Honey is the son of Channi’s sister-in-law. On January 18, the agency had raided his premises and claimed to have seized about ₹8 crore cash.
The Punjab CM earlier alleged that a recent raid at his relative Bhupinder Singh Honey’s house indicated that it was a ‘revenge’ for the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ferozepur in Punjab.
He added that Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and other agencies are being used by the Central government in order to implicate him.
“I have come to know that ED said, ‘Don’t forget PM Modi’s Ferozepur visit.’ This raid reflects ‘revenge’. In order to implicate me, my nephew was interrogated for 24 hours … The agency didn’t get any proof against me,” said Channi while addressing a press conference in Chandigarh.
Meanwhile, Punjab will go to assembly polls on February 20.
