ED seeks cancellation of bail to Congress candidate Lal Singh in money laundering case

Srinagar: Days after his ‘ghar wapsi’, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has moved Jammu and Kashmir High Court for cancellation of bail to former minister and now Congress candidate from Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat Choudhary Lal Singh.

The two-time MP was arrested by the ED last year in an alleged money laundering case registered against an educational trust run by his wife and former MLA Kanta Andotra.

On November 23, 2023, a local court had granted interim bail to Singh, subject to certain conditions, which was later converted into a regular bail.

The ED has now moved the High Court seeking cancellation of the bail to the 65-year-old politician, who rejoined the Congress on March 20. However, the ED plea is yet to be taken up by the High Court.

Singh was nominated by the Congress to contest against BJP leader and Union minister Jitendra Singh from Udhampur in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The money laundering case stems from an October 2021 charge sheet filed by the CBI in the case which alleged criminal connivance in the issuance of land between January 4 and January 7, 2011, when Singh was a cabinet minister in Omar Abdullah led National Conference-Congress coalition, thereby giving undue pecuniary advantage to educational trust.

Singh, a two-time MP and three-time MLA, switched from the Congress to the BJP in 2014. He was a cabinet minister in the BJP-PDP alliance in the erstwhile state when he was forced to resign over his participation in a rally organised to support those arrested in connection with the gang-rape and murder case of an 8-year-old Muslim Bakkarwal girl in Kathua district in 2018.

After leaving the BJP in 2019, Lal Singh launched his own party and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Udhampur, but finished fourth with mere 20,000 votes.