In a major development, the Enforcement Directorate issued summons to former Punjab chief minister and Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi to appear before the ED’s zonal unit in Jalandhar on Monday for questioning in the money laundering charges against his nephew, Bhupinder Singh Honey, in an illegal sand mining case in Punjab .
But Channi skipped the summons and did not appear before the agency on Monday. The ED is now planning to issue him fresh summons, sources told THE WEEK.
Honey is an accused in the illegal sand mining case and was arrested by the ED on February 3. His arrest generated a lot of political heat, coming ahead of the Assembly polls in Punjab where Channi was the CM face of the Congress and the party received serious drubbing.
The ED summons to Channi bring fresh trouble for the party which may once again have to defend its senior leader after its poll debacle in Punjab. For the opposition, the allegations will add to the ammunition against the ousted party and its leaders.
According to sources, Channi is likely to be asked to explain his nephew’s alleged visits to the CM's office, transfer of some state government employees and funds to the tune of Rs 10 crore allegedly received by Honey to facilitate mine related works through his ''political'' connections.
According to evidence gathered by the ED, at one instance, Honey is learnt to have identified himself as a ''politician'' in an entry pass to the CM's office.
In its raids on January 18 against Honey and others, the ED had seized around Rs 7.9 crore cash from his premises and another Rs 2 crore cash from a person linked to him identified as Sandeep Kumar.
While the Congress claims a witch-hunt, the ED's findings can cause some embarrassment to the party. According to the agency, Honey received Rs 6-7 crore for early clearances of mining files, transfer of officials for favouring mining operations and smooth functioning of transportation facility of sand from mining sites. The remaining Rs 3-4 crore was in lieu of arranging transfers of Punjab government employees.
The ED has in its possession copies of temporary entry pass to the chief minister's office on November 11, 2021 issued by the CM’s deputy principal secretary for Hoey. In this pass, recovered by ED during searches at Homeland House premises, Honey’s designation is mentioned as ''politician''.
Another temporary pass to the CM office has been recovered which was in the name of Sandeep Kumar. The agency also recovered three letters dated December 23 and December 31 , 2021 addressed to the chief minister allegedly written by MLA Joginder Pal on the subject of transfers involving state government employees.
The ED claimed Honey had admitted in his statement that the total amount of recoveries—Rs 4.09 crore seized from his residential premises; Rs 1.99 crore seized from Sandeep's premises and Rs 3.89 crore from Homeland House premises—pertained to him. The ED has also documented the statement made by Honey’s father Santokh Singh, during the searches at his house in Ludhiana, that the recovered cash belonged to his son. Nearly 70 unsigned sheets have also been found at the residence where the names of the mining officers are not mentioned but the name of the contractor Kurdatdeep Singh is mentioned alongside Malikpur mine. In these slips, the timing of the departure of trucks from the mine is from 8 am to 2.48 pm on November 10, 2017.
