CHANDIGARH: November 2 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today searched the residence of former Punjab Industries Minister and senior Congress leader Sunder Sham Arora in Hoshiarpur.
A team of ED officials arrived at Arora’s house on Jodha Mal Road around 5 a.m. in three to four vehicles and began searching the premises as personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) accompanied the officials during the operation.
The latest action comes after the Income Tax Department had earlier conducted an extensive search at Arora’s residence, which lasted nearly three days, or around 62 hour. At the time, Arora had claimed that the Income Tax action was linked to his son’s property business. He had also maintained that the officials had found nothing illegal during the search.
Arora’s counsel, advocate HS Saini, said that he had spoken to the officials and learnt that the team had arrived from the Chandigarh office of the agency.
"However, the officials had not disclosed the purpose of the search, though they had sought certain documents. They asked me to wait while their investigation is underway, and said they would grant me access once it’s complete," he said.
Saini said the officials had sought certain documents but had not provided further details about the investigation.
There was no immediate official statement from the ED regarding the searches or any possible recovery of documents, cash or other material.
In October 2022, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrested Arora over allegations that he had attempted to bribe a senior vigilance official with Rs 50 lakh to secure favourable treatment in an investigation.
The bribery allegations became a major political controversy in Punjab. The proceedings in the case were subsequently stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
In another case registered in January 2023, the Vigilance Bureau accused Arora, an IAS officer, and and 10 government officials for transferring an industrial plot to a realtor company and allowing it to establish a township by dividing the plots.
Three owners of the realtor firm, Gulmohar Township Private Limited, had also been booked in connection with the case. It was alleged that official approvals had been granted to a private real estate company in violation of prescribed procedures, causing financial losses to the state government.
The VB arrested seven PSIEC officials for allegedly conniving with one another to provide undue benefit to the realtor firm. However, the officials were reinstated and the project was given the go-ahead by the state government.
The Punjab Government had allotted 25 acres of land to Anand Lamps Limited through a sale deed in 1987. The land was later transferred to a firm named Signify Innovations.
Signify Innovations subsequently sold the plot to Gulmohar Township through a sale deed after obtaining a no-objection certificate from the Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation (PSIDC).
In March 2021, the then Industry and Commerce Minister Sunder Shyam Arora forwarded a letter received from Gulmohar Township to the then MD of PSIDC, seeking further bifurcation of plots.
The MD, PSIDC, subsequently constituted a departmental committee to examine the realtor firm's proposal. The committee approved the firm's proposal to bifurcate 12 plots into 125, without taking into consideration the proposal report, project report, articles of association and memorandum of association.
In addition, the committee recommended the proposal of Gulmohar Township without consulting the Punjab Pollution Control Board and Municipal Corporation.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the proceedings against Arora in the industrial plot transfer case in 2024. Arora, who had served as Industries and Commerce Minister in the previous Congress government, had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2022 before returning to the Congress in 2024 and he has denied wrongdoing in the earlier cases.