JALANDHAR: Former Punjab Chief Minister and Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths on Wednesday in an illegal sand mining case, sources said.
According to top ED sources, Channi was quizzed by the official of the financial probe agency at its office in Jalandhar for several hours.
I was summoned by the ED yesterday regarding the mining case. I attended and replied to the queries put by them to the best of my knowledge. A Challan in this case has already been presented by ED in the Hon’ble court .The authorities have not asked me to come again.
— Charanjit Singh Channi (@CHARANJITCHANNI) April 14, 2022
Taking to a dig at Channi, former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu said, “My fight was for Punjab and not for sand…Those who ran the land, sand and liquor mafia let down Punjab for selfish vested interests by looting the exchequer…. It is either Punjab or the mafia in the present financial scenario! The fight continues.”
Ahead of crucial assembly elections in January this year, the ED had raided the premises of the former CM’s nephew, Bhupinder Singh Honey, and his aides including Kudrat Deep Singh in Ludhiana and Mohali.
During the course of search operations, various incriminating documents related to sand mining business, property transactions; mobile phones, Indian currency more than Rs 10 crore, gold worth above Rs 21 lakhs and a Rolex watch worth Rs 12 lakhs were found and seized from the search premises.
The ED case is based on the basis of FIR registered by the Punjab Police.
In the FIR, it was mentioned that a team comprising of officials of mining department, civil administration and police department made a surprise check on March 7, 2018 on the basis of a complaint received at Rahon police station in SBS Nagar regarding illegal sand mining.
Consequently, it was found that several mines were being excavated by various machines and mining was being carried out beyond the designated area.