Ludhiana (TIP): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday, April 17, conducted a series of raids at premises associated with Sanjeev Arora, Punjab’s Industries Minister, as part of an ongoing investigation, officials said.
Sources said that officers of the Enforcement Directorate are carrying out searches at 13 locations in Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The coordinated raids, which began around 6:30 a.m., are targeting the residence and official premises of Sanjeev Arora, along with properties linked to his business associates and family members, including his daughter. The ED teams were provided security by personnel from a central paramilitary force.
Arora, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Ludhiana West, is understood to be travelling abroad as part of official work.
Arora was travelling to Europe as part of the Punjab Government’s “Invest Punjab” initiative, aimed at attracting foreign investment. He left for Amsterdam late on Thursday evening. Other senior state officials, along with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, are also expected to travel abroad shortly in connection with the same programme.
Arora is the promoter of company M/s Hampton Sky Realty Ltd (formerly M/s Ritesh Properties and Industries Ltd) which is into large scale real estate and infra projects in Punjab. The company is under scanner for alleged multiple irregularities such as illegal change of land use in the state, booking fraudulent and inflated sales to boost share prices, insider trading in the stock market, and routing illegal betting money from the UAE to India, among others. At present, his son, Kavya Arora, is the Managing Director of the company, and his premises are also being searched.
Responding to the ED raids, Arora stated that he would fully cooperate with the investigation. In a post on X, he said, “An action by the Enforcement Directorate took place at my premises. As a responsible citizen, I will fully cooperate with the agencies, and I am confident that the truth will prevail.” In a related development earlier this week, the ED conducted searches under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) at premises linked to Ashok Kumar Mittal, a Rajya Sabha member from the AAP, as well as his educational institutions in Punjab and Haryana.
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