Money laundering case: ED conducts raids on properties linked to ex-Uttarakhand minister Harak Singh Rawat

These recent ED raids unfolded a day after the agency conducted searches at the premises of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's personal assistant Bibhav Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP and party treasurer ND Gupta, and others.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday (February 7) carried out searches at locations linked to former Uttarakhand minister and Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat, as well as several others, as part of a money laundering investigation. The raids spanned over a dozen locations in Uttarakhand and the Delhi-NCR region.

In 2022, Harak Singh Rawat faced dismissal from the Uttarakhand cabinet and a six-year suspension from the BJP for alleged "anti-party activities." Subsequently, he joined the Congress ahead of the state assembly elections, where the BJP secured victory for a second consecutive term.

Harak Singh Rawat was among the ten MLAs who defected from the Congress to the BJP in 2016, rebelling against former Chief Minister Harish Rawat.

These recent ED raids unfolded a day after the agency conducted searches at the premises of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's personal assistant Bibhav Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP and party treasurer ND Gupta, and others. The investigation is focused on allegations of routing bribes, stemming from irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board tendering process, as election funds for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

While the AAP accused the Centre and the ED of intimidation, labeling the raids as politically motivated, the BJP countered with corruption allegations against the Kejriwal government.