CHANDIGARH: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials began searching the residence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and owner of Janta Land Promoters Limited (JLPL) Mohali MLA Kulwant Singh on Tuesday.
The searches spanned more than 15 locations, including his residential premises, in connection with an ongoing money laundering investigation.
The searches are related to the Pearl Agro Corporation Limited (PACL) case pertaining to investor fraud involving an amount of Rs 48,000 crore. The directors of PACL had allegedly siphoned off investors’ funds by transferring them to shell companies in multiple locations.
Sources said that the teams from the Delhi unit of ED, accompanied by the Punjab Police, reached the residence of Singh, who is reportedly the richest MLA of the state, in Mohali and started the search.
Singh is not home at present, but his family members are being questioned by the agency. Also, sleuths of the agency are conducting searches at 15 other locations across Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Delhi.
These funds were then withdrawn in cash and handed over to key PACL associates before being transferred to companies outside India through hawala for purchasing properties, said sources.
An FIR has also been registered against associates of the late Nirmal Singh Bhangoo for illegally disposing of the properties of PACL and associate entities.
Last year, Singh was questioned by the Jalandhar office of the ED in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged drug trafficking.
In 2015, Singh, who reportedly has assets worth Rs 1,000 crore, for the first time became mayor of the Mohali Municipal Corporation with Congress support, and in 2017, he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal but was expelled for “anti-party activities” after he unsuccessfully contested the 2021 municipal elections as an independent.
In December that year, he joined the AAP and was given a party ticket from Mohali, and he won the 2022 assembly elections and became a legislator.