CHANDIGARH: The Enforcement Directorate has attached properties worth £6.16 million belonging to 13 people in a multi-million drug racket case. The properties include showrooms, agricultural land, residential houses, assets of businesses, firms, fixed deposit receipts, and seven luxury cars.
Former Akali minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur's immovable property worth Rs 1475,000 was ordered to be attached by the agency, along with his son Damanvir Singh Phillaur's immovable property worth £472,000. Apart from these two, ED attached the property of forner Akali MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Avinash Chander. "ED Jalandhar zone is investigating drug racket case of Jagdhish Bhola and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002. Investigation revealed that proceeds of crime derived from cash-rich drug business has been laundered in movable and immovable properties. The ED has issued provisional attachment order on March 31 for attaching movable/immovable properties worth £6.16 million," it said.
The order also included attached property of Amritsar-based businessman Jagjit Singh Chahal, Paramjit Singh Chahal and Inderjit Kaur, along with the properties of Una-based businessman Devinder Kant Sharma, Canadian NRIs Sukhraj Singh, and Jaswinder Singh. The ED has earlier attached the assets worth over £3.4 million and prosecution complaints have already been filed against 48 people and companies. The ED has been probing an international drug racket, which was unearthed with the arrest of an NRI, Anoop Singh Kahlon, by the Fatehgarh Sahib police in March 2013. Further probe in the case had led to the arrest of alleged kingpin Jagdish Bhola, a dismissed DSP of Punjab police.
