New Delhi: Cash amounting to Rs 4.06 crore and other “incriminating” evidence were seized during raids against an illegal-mine operator and his company in Punjab, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Thursday.
The searches were launched on Wednesday at 14 residential and business premises in Rupnagar (Ropar district), Hoshiarpur, Mandi Gobindgarh (Fatehgarh Sahib district) and Una in Himachal Pradesh.
“During the course of search operations, various incriminating evidence, documents, mobile phones, laptop and cash amounting to Rs 4.06 crore were seized,” the federal agency said in a statement.
The money-laundering case of the ED stems from a Punjab Police FIR that was registered under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Nasib Chand, proprietor of Shri Ram Stone Crusher, was carrying out “illegal” mining on the land attached by the ED earlier in the “infamous” Bhola drugs case, the agency alleged.
Chand was also carrying out “rampant illegal mining” in some areas of Ropar district and various transactions related to transfer of funds among other people and entities involved in illegal mining have surfaced during the investigation, it claimed.
The Bhola drugs money-laundering case pertains to a multi-crore synthetic narcotics racket that was unearthed in Punjab in 2013-14.
The ED case was lodged on the basis of FIRs filed by the Punjab Police.
The case is commonly known as the Bhola drugs case to identify the alleged “kingpin”, wrestler-turned-policeman-turned-“drug mafia” Jagdish Singh alias Bhola.
Bhola was arrested by the ED in January 2014 and the case is currently in trial before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Punjab.
