Hindustan Times (Bathinda)

ED officials raid accused PCS officer’s residence

- HT Correspond­ent letterschd@hindustant­imes.com

PATIALA: The Enforcemen­t Directorat­e (ED) on Wednesday conducted a raid at the local residence of the Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officer Anand Sagar Sharma, who is the main accused in the Hoshiarpur land scam.

The ED has registered a case against Sharma and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PLMA).

Sharma had allegedly laundered money meant for acquiring land for a national highway in Hoshiarpur, 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 12 hours. As the officer was not present at his residence, they grilled his family members, including wife and father.

The officials made an inventory 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 Sharma 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 Sharma’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 Hindustan 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 Sharma and others and detected an embezzleme­nt of Rs 59 crore.

The bureau had registered a case against Sharma 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.

Sharma, who remained under suspension for almost six months for his alleged involvemen­t in the multi-crore land scam, was reinstated by the Punjab Government on September 28.

 ??  ?? Anand Sagar Sharma
Anand Sagar Sharma

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from India