NEW DELHI: Sleuths of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), who conducted raids at Delhi Social Welfare Minister Raaj Kumar Anand’s house for around 23 hours, have found evidence regarding some hawala payments sent to China, officials said on Friday.
Anand, 57, is the minister for social welfare and SC/ST welfare in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government. He is an MLA from Patel Nagar constituency.
“During the search operations, evidence relating unaccounted business investments and hawala payments sent to China during 2023 were recovered from key employees of Raaj Kumar Anand,” the ED said in a statement.
Apart from this, the probe agency has also found Rs 74 lakh cash and various “incriminating documents and digital records” from the minister’s house. The search operation was conducted at 13 locations in Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, and Uttar Pradesh as part of an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The ED said it initiated the investigation based on the prosecution complaint filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence against Anand and other connected persons/entities for the commission of an offense under sections of the Customs Act. The minister said the raids were just a way adopted by the BJP to cause distress and averred that they are not afraid of CBI or ED.
A local court recently took cognizance of the DRI prosecution complaint after which the ED filed a PMLA case against Anand and some others, they said.