Jammu: The Enforcement Directorate Tuesday conducted searches in Jammu and adjoining areas as part of a money laundering probe against an educational trust run by ex-minister Lal Singh’s wife and a former government official in connection with alleged irregularities in land purchase to set up the trust, official sources said.
The federal agency raided about eight premises in Jammu, Kathua and Punjab’s Pathankot in the case against RB Educational Trust, its chairperson and Lal Singh’s wife Kanta Andotra, as well as Ravinder S, a former revenue official.
The money laundering case stems from an October 2021 charge-sheet filed by the CBI in this case which alleged criminal connivance in the issuance of land between January 04 and January 07, 2011, without mentioning details in respect of violation of the ceiling limit of 100 standard kanals imposed under Section 14 of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976, thereby giving undue pecuniary advantage to trust.
Based on this, the trust acquired multiple pieces of land of about 329 Kanals vide three gift deeds executed on January 05 and January 07, 2011, the CBI charge-sheet claimed.
The sources said the ED has found that excess land is being actively used by the trust for running DPS Schools and other commercial activities.
The premises being covered in Tuesday’s search include those related to the trust, chairperson, land donors, power of attorney holders on behalf of land donors, witnesses who had executed the deeds and the then Patwari who wrongfully issued ‘fards’ (revenue extracts) for letting RB Educational Trust execute the deeds, they added.
Meanwhile, the workers of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party held protests in Kathua against these searches.
Pertinently, Lal Singh is the chairman of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP).
As the news about the ED’s search at Singh’s residence in Kathua broke, scores of DSSP workers gathered outside the house and held a protest.
“It is a condemnable and shameful act. This is to suppress Lal Singh’s voice. First, they used CBI and now they are using ED against him. It is an assault on Dogras by the Union Territory administration and the BJP,” a DSSP leader told reporters here.
The protesters said the party will never succumb to the BJP and will fight against it.
