New Delhi: Bhupinder Singh Honey — nephew of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to illegal mining in Punjab, has moved a bail application through his counsel at a Special Court.
The court is all set to hear the argument.
Honey was arrested during the intervening night of February 3 and 4 by the ED which later got his custody till February 8.
The source have claimed that Honey wad evasive and was not cooperating with the probe agency.
Honey was interrogated by a team of elite officials of the central probe agency. His family had been allowed by the court to meet him once for an hour everyday.
The ED’s document accessed by the IANS reads that Honey allegedly used to take money from officials in lieu of their choice of transfer and posting.
“Moreover, Bhupinder Singh has explicitly stated in his statement during search, inter-alia, that all cash which was seized from his residential premises at Ludhiana (Rs 4.09 crore), Sandeep Kumar’s premises at Ludhiana (Rs 1.99 crore) and from the Homeland House Premises at Mohali (Rs 3.89 crore) actually pertained to him. He admitted to have generated such proceeds of crime through mining related activities including clearance of mining files and transfer of officials,” read the ED document accessed by the IANS.
Sources have claimed since Channi was close to Chhani, he was using the political connection to earn huge profit.
According to ED documents accessed by IANS, Honey has confessed that it was his Rs 10 crore which was recovered by the ED during raids.
The ED has alleged that he was getting money from illegal mining too.
On January 18, the ED had conducted raids at 10 different locations including Homeland Heights which is the residence of Honey.
The ED continued conducting raids at different places for two days and recovered incriminating documents.
Honey was asked to appear before ED’s zonal office in Jalandhar. He had to record his statement in connection with the ongoing probe.
The ED officials had recorded the statement of Kudrat Deep Singh, the business partner of Honey.
The ED official had said that they seized incriminating documents pertaining to illegal sand mining, property transactions, cell phones, gold worth above Rs 21 lakh and a watch worth Rs 12 lakh and cash Rs 10 crore during the raid.
A source said that the documents recovered by them have confirmed that Kudrat Deep Singh was running two firms and Bhupinder Singh Honey was joint director in them.
As per sources, the firms are basically shell companies but ED has found a lot of money transactions. One of the firms is Provider Overseas Consultancy Limited which was incorporated in 2018 with 33.33 per cent equal shares.
The ED’s case is on the basis of a two-year-old FIR.
The ED conducted raids at 10 different locations including one belonging to Punjab Chief Minster Charanjit Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey.
Punjab Police had on March 7, 2018, lodged a case against more than 10 individuals.
The ED initiated a money laundering probe on the basis of the FIR pertaining to illegal sand mining in Punjab in November last year.
The FIR has been accessed by IANS which was filed under several sections of IPC.
Bhupinder Singh Honey was not named in the Punjab Police’s FIR and Kudrat Deep Singh was given a clean chit in the matter.
The ED found that money was being laundered by the accused involved in the case and they started probing the matter.
IANS