ED files chargesheet against ex-Punjab CM Channi's nephew in sand mining case

The Enforcement Directorate ED has filed a charge sheet against the nephew of former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi in an illegal sand mining caseThe agency also named one more person in the charge sheet filed on March 31 under money laundering charges in the court of Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA judge Rupinderjit Chahal in Punjab The court has fixed April 6 as the next date of hearing in the caseThe federal agency has charged Sections 3 offence of money laundering 4 punishment for money laundering 44 offences triable by special courts and 45 offences to be cognisable and nonbailable of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA 2002 against Channis nephew Bhupinder Singh alias Honey and his associate Kudratdeep SinghHoney was arrested on the intervening night of February 3 and 4 by the ED and as per rules the agency had to file a chargesheet against him within 60 days The ED had on January 18 days before the Punjab Assembly elections conducted raids against Honey and others at 10 locations ED has also seized more than Rs 10 crore Gold worth above 21 lakh and a Rolex watch worth Rs 12 lakh from the residential premises of alleged land mafia Honey and others in connection with an alleged illegal sand mining caseThe ED had declared the recoveries after it concluded its twoday 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 federal agency had also 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 on January 18 and 19The raids were also conducted at the premises of Randeep Singh the owner of Providers Overseas Consultants Pvt Ltd and its other Directors and shareholders including Bhupinder Singh and Sandeep Kumar The places searched then included Honeys Homeland Heights Society residence in Mohalis Sector70 ED initiated a moneylaundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Police Station under sections 379 420 465 467 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code IPC and Section 211 and 41 of Mines and Minerals Regulation of Development Act 1957 in March 2018In the FIR it was mentioned that a team comprising of officials of the Mining Department Civil Administration and Police Department made a surprise check on March 7 2018 on the basis of a complaint received at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Police Station regarding illegal sand mining Consequently it was found that several mines were being excavated by various machines and mining was being carried out beyond the designated areaAccordingly several tippers and trucks Porcelain machines and JCB Machines were captured and seized by the investigating team The seized tipper and trucks were also found to be overloaded with sand The seized weighment slips having office stamps had actually not been issued by the concerned office and were forged ED had said Subsequently the ED had also informed that the mining operation at the Malikpur mining site was stopped and also the approval of weighment slips was stopped by the teamAs per the FIR apart from Malikpur illegal mining activities were also carried out at Burjtahl Das Barsal Lalewal Mandala and Khosa On the basis of information available the ED said the investigation was initiated against all the accused mine owners and their associates in order to ascertain the money laundering activities undertaken by them for laundering their proceeds of crimeThe ED suspects that black money was invested in getting a contract for the sand mine The company floated sources say is of very small scale and unlikely to get a contract worth crores Honeys partner Kudratdeep Singh of Ludhiana and 25 others are already booked by Punjab Police in its FIR registered in 2018 When the ED questioned Kudratdeep Singh it came to the fore that the main facilitator was HoneyThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever