Jammu : Former Jammu and Kashmir minister Choudhary Lal Singh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday in a money laundering case. The former minister was questioned for over 3 days from past one week in a case against an educational trust run by his wife and former legislator Kanta Andotra.
Scores of Singh's supporters led by his wife Andotra assembled outside the agency office and staged a protest against the arrest of their leader.
They claimed he was being harassed at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre. Singh, the chairman of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party, was questioned by ED sleuths on Saturday Monday and on Tuesday.
Last month, the Enforcement Directorate conducted searches in Jammu and its adjoining areas as part of a money laundering probe against the educational trust of Andotra and a former government official in connection with alleged irregularities in land purchase to set up the trust. The federal agency had raided about eight premises in Jammu, Kathua and Punjab's Pathankot on October 17 in the case against RB Educational Trust, its chairperson and Ravinder S, a former revenue official.
The money laundering case stems from an October 2021 charge sheet filed by the CBI which alleged criminal connivance in the issuance of land between January 4 and January 7, 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 5 and January 7, 2011, the CBI charge sheet claimed. Singh's supporters staged a dharna outside the ED office throughout the day and chanted slogans in his support and against the BJP. Lal Singh has been under investigation by the federal agency as part of the case lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Lal Singh is a two-time MP and a three-time MLA, who switched loyalty from the Congress to the BJP in 2014 and later resigned from the saffron to float his own party in 2018 following differences with the BJP leadership over his support for an accused in a girl murder case.
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