ED books former GMADA chief engineer for money laundering
JALANDHAR: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a case under money laundering charges against former chief engineer of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) Surinderpal Singh, alias Pehalwan, and others in the multi-crore graft case.
Besides Pehalwan, ED has also named Gurinderpal Singh, Amit Garg, Gurmesh Singh Gill, Mohit Kumar, along with two firms — Onkar Builders and Contractors, and Rajinder and Company — as accused in the case. The agency has filed an enforcement case information report, seen by HT, under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at its zonal office in Jalandhar on the basis of probe details shared by Punjab vigilance bureau (VB).
The ED has registered the case nearly four years after the VB shared the documents with the central agency in August 2017. Sources said the documents shared by VB were sufficient to lodge a money laundering case in 2017. Thereafter, the ED wrote letters seeking more details of the case in 2017 and 2018. The vigilance shared one chargesheet and some other case documents with the central agency in July 2020 in reply to the latter communication to the state agency in January 2019, almost after a period of one and a half years.
The ED officials said they were yet to receive the remaining three challans from VB.
In November 2019, the Punjab and Haryana high court had directed an additional district and sessions court, Mohali, to finish its trial against Pehalwan, in an alleged multi-crore graft case within a year while denying bail. However, in 2020, Supreme Court granted him bail.
The VB had arrested Pehalwan, an alleged favourite of the Badal family of Shiromani Akali Dal, on June 9, 2017. According to the vigilance probe, Pehalwan allotted works of around ₹1,200 crore at exorbitant rates. He is also accused of parking his black money in accounts of bogus firms and family members. In September 2019, VB had also attached 59 properties of Pehalwan amounting to ₹26 crore (approx) as per the orders of a Mohali court.