MOHALI: Former Punjab minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur and his son Damanvir Singh are among 12 others named in an ED chargesheet filed in the Jagdish Bhola drug racket and money laundering case in a CBI court in Mohali. The 211-page chargesheet was filed by the Enforcement Directorate's special public prosecutor Jagjit Singh Sarao and also names former chief parliamentary secretary Avinash Chander.
Sarao said the ED had earlier filed a chargesheet against the prime accused, Bhola, and four supplementary chargesheets against others involved in the case. He claimed that the accused had purchased properties from the proceeds of the drug racket. “The ED had in 2013, registered an FIR against Bhola and others in this connection,” he said. The chargesheet states that Chander took Rs 4500,000 from Chunni Lal Gabba, another accused named in a supplementary chargesheet filed in the case.
Bhola, a former DSP in Punjab police and an Arjuna awardee, was booked in January 2014, as co-accused, a day after he accused then state revenue minister, Bikram Singh Majithia of patronising the drug mafia. Both Phillaur and Chander were minister and CPS, respectively, in the previous SAD-BJP government. They were dropped and denied tickets for the 2017 Assembly elections after their names cropped up in the infamous drug and money laundering racket.
