ED searches 13 premises of Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora, partners

The ED raided 13 premises of Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora, his son, and business partners across multiple states in a FEMA probe. The investigation focuses on financial irregularities, round-tripping of funds, and links to betting operators.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out searches at the residence of Punjab minister and MLA Sanjeev Arora, his son Kavya Arora, and his two business partners across Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab in connection with an ongoing investigation under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Officials said the raids have been underway since early Friday, covering 13 premises in Haryana's Gurugram, Chandigarh, and Punjab's Ludhiana and Jalandhar. The raids covered residences and offices of Sanjeev Arora, his business partners Hemanth Sood of Ludhiana and Chandrasekhar Aggarwal of Jalandhar.

Investigation into Financial Irregularities

According to officials, Arora is the promoter of Hampton Sky Realty Ltd, a firm engaged in large-scale real estate and infrastructure projects in Punjab. His son, Kavya Arora, who currently serves as the managing director, is also under the scanner, with searches being conducted at his premises. Investigators are examining allegations of multiple financial irregularities linked to the company, including illegal land-use changes, inflated and fraudulent sales bookings to manipulate share prices, insider trading, and the alleged round-tripping of funds from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Role of Business Partners Scrutinised

Officials said Hemanth Sood, who runs a financial investment and stockbroker company, Findoc Finvest Private Limited, in Ludhiana, Gurgaon and Gujarat GIFT city, partnered with Sanjeev Arora and assisted him in the round tripping of his ill-got funds from the UAE and also in generating proceeds of crime from insider trading. Hemant Sood is also alleged to have assisted many more betting operators and hawala operators in laundering the crime money and round-tripping the same into India through the Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) route.

They further pointed out that Chandra Sekhar Aggarwal, a Jalandhar-based businessman, originally started as a cricket bookie and later expanded his operations to hawala operations and started a bookie and betting platform by the name Khiladi Book and cheated thousands of poor people through betting platforms. "Chandra Sekhar Aggarwal's crime proceeds generated and parked in the UAE have also been brought back into India through Findoc and invested in real estate through Sanjeev Arora."

Links to Illegal Betting and Money Laundering

Sanjeev Arora, officials said, is suspected to have been giving protection to the illegal betting operators in Punjab, through his political influence, to get a share of their profits and also using his companies and multiple entry operators to convert their unaccounted money into legitimate investments and thereby actively assisting in money laundering.

They also added that Sanjeev Arora's companies are also under scanner for booking multiple fake export bills and round-tripping funds from the UAE, and also booking fake purchases from non-existing GST entities. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)