On Tuesday,the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided close to a dozen places including the residence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey, in connection with an illegal sand mining case. It was in 2018, the state mining department filed a complaint at Rahon Police station in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district regarding illegal sand mining. Following this, ED took charge of the investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
According to ED officials, one of the major suspects, Kudrat Deep Singh, had registered new firms with two directors, Sandeep Singh and Bhupinder Singh. The ED is investigating money-laundering accusations against six contractors, believing that earnings from unlawful sand mining have been transferred further. Other contractors too were involved in the case, in addition to Kudrat Deep Singh.
The ED team, which included six officials and four police officers, stormed in to Channi’s nephew’s luxury Homeland Heights condominiums in Mohali early Tuesday in the districts of Ludhiana and Pathankot.
According to the FIR, there are 26 defendants, the most of whom are truck drivers. The case was filed in response to a complaint filed by the Punjab mining department, which discovered unauthorised sand quarries during searches in 2018. The mining department seized 30 vehicles and other equipments which were used in this crime.
The case was filed in 2018 at Rahon under Sections 21(1) and 4(1) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, as well as Sections 420 (punishment for cheating), 471 (whoever fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine), and 465 (punishment for forgery) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.
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