ED officials raid accused PCS officer’s residence
PATIALA: The Enforcement Directorate( ED) on Wednesday conducted ar aid at the local residence of the Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officer Anand Sagar S harm a, who is the main accused in the Hoshiarpur land scam.
The ED has registered a case against S harm a and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PLMA).
Sharma had allegedly laundered money meant for acquiring land for a national highway in Ho sh iarp ur, when he was posted as sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) there.
A team of ED officials, led by assistant director Ajai Singh, reached Sharma’s residence at the Sular Road in the morning.
The team searched Sharma’s house for more than 12hours. As the officer was not present at his residence, they grilled his family members, including wife and father.
The officials made an inven- tory of items in the house and taken signatures of all family members present in the house. They also took all documents relating to all properties which S harm a and his family members has purchased.
The ED team also took some of his family members to a bank in the city to operate their lockers. Besides, it seized a hard discs of a computer and a laptop.
Meanwhile, the ED officials expressed surprise over a fleet of luxury vehicles parked in S harm a’ s house. These included an Audi car and three other sports untility vehicles (SUVs).
The officials questioned his family members to find out the owners of these vehicles.
The scam was exposed by Hindu stan Times, after which then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had ordered a vigilance bureau (VB) probe in the case.
The VB had conducted an inquiry against S harm a and others and detected an embezzlement of Rs 59 crore.
The bureau had registered a case against S harm a and a dozen other persons.
However, his arrest was stayed by the Punjab and Haryana high court recently.
On the basis of the VB probe, the ED registered an enforcement case investigation report (ECIR) in June this year and started a probe into the financial irregularities.
S harm a, who remained under suspension for almost six months for his alleged involvement in the multi- cr ore lands cam, was reinstated by the Punjab Government on September 28.