Chandigarh: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested former Haryana MLA Dilbag Singh and his aide Kulwinder Singh in an alleged illegal mining-linked money laundering investigation, official sources said.
The Enforcement Directorate had raided Singh, a former legislator of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) from the Yamuna Nagar assembly seat, and Congress MLA from Sonipat, Surender Panwar, as well as their linked entities on January 4 and the searches ended after five days on Monday.
Dilbag Singh and Kulwinder Singh have been taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the two will be produced before a local court, where the agency will seek their further custody.
About 20 locations were covered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the searches.
At least five 'illegal' rifles, 300 bullets and cartridges, more than 100 liquor bottles, and Rs 5 crore cash were recovered by the ED from the premises of Dilbag Singh and other linked persons.
The central agency filed an FIR at the Pratap Nagar police station during the course of the searches after it found that the licence of the weapons recovered by it had expired.
The money laundering case stems from several FIRs registered by the Haryana Police to probe alleged illegal mining of boulders, gravel, and sand that took place in the past in Yamunanagar and its nearby districts even after the lease expiry period and a ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal.
The central agency is also probing an alleged fraud in the 'e-Ravana' scheme, an online portal that was introduced by the Haryana government in 2020 to simplify the collection of royalties and taxes and prevent tax evasion in mining areas.
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