NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Sonepat Congress MLA Surender Panwar in connection with a money laundering case linked to illegal mining in some areas of the state.
According to official sources, the federal probe agency may take Panwar to the special PMLA Court in Ambala, Haryana where they will seek the legislator's custody.
A team from ED's Gurugram office had reached MLA's residence in the early hours of the day and questioned him for some time after which he was placed under arrest.
The ED's case stems from multiple FIRs registered by the Haryana Police in the past related to illegal mining in Yamunanagar, Sonipat and several other districts.
The National Green Tribunal had also passed various orders in this regard for illegal mining.
According to sources, the ED's investigation revealed the act of illegal excavation and sale of minerals (boulder, gravel and sand) done by numerous screening plant owners and stone crushers of Yamunanagar District.
"This was done through illegal transportation of the mined minerals without generating the requisite e-Rawana bills from the Mining Department portal, or by the production of fake physical copies of the e-Rawana bills upon inspection, and other modus operandi to evade authorities," the source said.
Earlier in January, the ED had conducted a search operation at 20 premises located in the cities of Faridabad, Sonepat, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Chandigarh and Mohali in relation to the case of large-scale illegal mining of sand, boulders and gravels.
Searches were also carried out at that time at Panwar’s residence and multiple locations linked to former Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Dilbag Singh.
After the search operation, ex-MLA Dilbag Singh and his aide Kulwinder Singh were arrested on January 8 under the relevant provisions of PMLA concerning their involvement in the aforementioned offence.
During the search operation in January, the ED also recovered Rs 5 crore cash, foreign-made arms and as many as 300 cartridges after the searches.