ED arrests former BJP minister in money laundering case

Srinagar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested former cabinet minister in Jammu and Kashmir government, Choudhary Lal Singh in an alleged money laundering case on Tuesday night.

The arrest came hours after an anti-corruption court in Jammu dismissed the anticipatory bail application of Singh, also a two-time Member Parliament and supremo of Dogra Swabhiman Sanghatan Party (DSSP).

The case pertains to an educational trust run by his wife Kanta Andotra. However, Andotra and Singh’s daughter Kranti were granted interim anticipatory bail till November 30 by the court in the case.

Prior to his arrest the former minister was subjected to questioning by the ED on Saturday and Monday. In October, the ED had conducted searches in Jammu and its adjoining areas as part of a money laundering probe against the 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.

After being denied LS ticket by Congress in 2014, Singh joined the BJP ahead of J&K Assembly polls in 2014. He won the 2014 Assembly election on the BJP mandate and was inducted as a cabinet minister.

However, he resigned from the BJP and floated the DSSP following uproar over his participation in a rally held in support of the accused in a rape and murder case involving an eight-year-old nomadic girl in Kathua in January 2018.