The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday began searching the residence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Mohali MLA Kulwant Singh as well as various locations linked to him across Punjab in connection with an ongoing investigation into a money laundering case.
Teams from the ED’s Delhi unit, accompanied by the local police, began searching Singh’s palatial residence in the Janta Land Promoters Limited (JLPL) area in Mohali in the morning. JLPL is Singh’s real estate company. As per ED sources, Singh is not home at present but his family members are being questioned by the central agency’s team.
Various other locations across Punjab linked to Singh, who is reportedly Punjab’s richest MLA, were also being searched in parallel raids which were still underway at the time of filing this report.
Sources with the ED told The Indian Express that the searches were in connection with an ongoing probe into the Pearl Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL) case. The directors of PACL had allegedly siphoned off investors’ funds by transferring them to shell companies in multiple locations. These funds were then withdrawn in cash and handed over to key PACL associates before being transferred to companies outside India through hawala for purchasing properties.
Last year, Kulwant Singh was questioned by the Jalandhar unit of the ED in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged drug trafficking.
Singh, who reportedly has assets worth Rs 1,000 crore, joined the AAP in December 2021 and won the 2022 Assembly elections from Mohali.
In 2015, he became the first mayor of the Mohali Municipal Corporation with Congress support. He joined the Shiromani Akali Dal in 2017 but was expelled for “anti-party activities” after he unsuccessfully contested the 2021 civic polls as an Independent.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
