Jalandhar PMLA court adjourns matter till Nov 30

JALANDHAR : The district and session court and special PMLA court, Jalandhar, on Wednesday adjourned the matter in ₹59 crore Hoshiarpur land scam case till November 30 after the Punjab and Haryana high court had stayed the arrest warrants of the accused Akali leaders Harpinder Singh Gill and Satwinderpal Singh Dhatt on September 19 and September 27 respectively.

The high court had fixed the next hearing in the matter on November 25.

The accused party placed the high court on record in the PMLA court, following which the matter was adjourned till November 30.

Special public prosecutor Lokesh Narang was representing the enforcement directorate (ED) in the court.

On September 3, the district and session judge and special judge (PMLA) had issued the arrest warrants of three Akali leaders—SAD councillor Harpinder Singh Gill, district co-operative bank chairman Satwinderpal Singh Dhatt and former market committee chairman Avtar Singh Johal —local businessman Parteek Gupta and his partners Pardeep Gupta and Jaswinderpal Singh.

The arrest warrants were issued on the prosecution complaint filed by the ED for October 9 asking them to face trial for the offence under Section 3 and Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

On the basis of cognizance taken by the special PMLA court, Jalandhar, the ED also moved an application with additional district and session court, Ludhiana (where Punjab vigilance bureau has filed the closure report), to transfer the Hoshiarpur land scam case to the special court (PMLA), Jalandhar.

RTI activist, Rajiv Vashisht, who is whistle-blower in the case, said that ED must probe the role of original owners of the SS engineering and International engineering companies when the compensation payment transferred from accused, Parteek Gupta into their accounts in 2016.

ACCUSED PARTY PLACED THE ORDER OF THE HC, WHICH HAD FIXED THE NEXT HEARING IN THE MATTER ON NOV 25, IN THE PMLA COURT, FOLLOWING WHICH THE CASE WAS ADJOURNED