Daijiworld Media Network - Jalandhar

Jalandhar, Nov 6: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it had conducted search operations at 14 locations across Punjab and Chandigarh in connection with a money laundering investigation against former Punjab Industries and Commerce Minister Sunder Sham Arora, his son Parteek Arora and their associates.

The searches were carried out by the ED's Jalandhar Zonal Office on November 2 and 3 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

During the operations, the agency recovered and seized mobile phones, incriminating documents, property-related papers, records concerning Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) plots and digital devices. Bank lockers were also frozen, the ED said in a statement.

The premises searched included the residential property of Sunder Sham Arora in Hoshiarpur, Shivam Hospital in the town and locations linked to SRG Builders and Promoters Private Limited, GRG Developers and Promoters LLP, and Gulmohar Township India Private Limited. The searches also covered premises associated with their promoters, directors and associates in Chandigarh and Mohali.

The money laundering investigation originated from an FIR registered by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, against Arora over allegations of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

According to the ED, Arora had allegedly offered a bribe of Rs 1 crore to a senior Vigilance Bureau officer to settle enquiries pending against him. He was arrested red-handed on October 15, 2022, at Zirakpur while allegedly handing over Rs 50 lakh in cash as an advance payment.

The ED investigation revealed that Arora, during his tenure as Punjab Industries and Commerce Minister from March 2017 to September 2021, exercised direct control over the functioning of PSIEC.

The agency alleged that he extended undue favours to private real estate players in the transfer of high-value PSIEC industrial plots and, in return, acquired stakes in real estate companies in the name of his son, Parteek Arora.

One of the transactions under investigation concerns industrial plot number A-32 at Phase 8 in Mohali, which was originally allotted by PSIEC to JCT Electronics, now bankrupt.

The plot was transferred to GRG Developers and Promoters LLP for Rs 90.56 crore through an auction conducted by ARCIL in February 2020.

The ED stated that under the terms of the lease deed, PSIEC was entitled to 50 per cent of the sale consideration as unearned increase, apart from the enhanced land cost and transfer fee. However, these dues were allegedly not paid in full to the corporation.

The agency further alleged that even after the tripartite agreement between PSIEC, ARCIL and GRG was cancelled in August 2021, no action was taken to cancel the lease deed or resume the plot.

The then minister, Sunder Sham Arora, allegedly approved proposals seeking post facto approvals for the calculation of unearned increase and enhanced fees and was directly involved in the affairs relating to the plot.

Bank records also indicated that Arora had invested in the purchase of the same plot through his son Parteek Arora, the ED said.