The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday conducted fresh searches against Punjab Industries and Power Minister Sanjeev Arora as part of a money laundering investigation.
The raids were conducted at five premises in Delhi, Gurugram and Chandigarh, including the office of Hampton Sky Realty Limited and the residence of Sanjeev Arora.
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The ED team raided Arora’s official residence in Chandigarh at 5 am, according to sources. Around eight vehicles of ED officials were seen parked outside the residence during the operation.
The latest action marks the third raid at Arora’s residence.
In an official statement, the ED said it has detected a case of large-scale money laundering allegedly carried out by Sanjeev Arora through his company, involving fake GST purchases of mobile phones worth more than Rs 100 crore, followed by subsequent exports used to “round-trip” illegitimate funds from Dubai to India.
It stated that multiple fake GST purchase bills were obtained from non-existing firms in Delhi to claim fraudulent input tax credit (ITC), as well as refunds of GST on export credit and duty drawback, thereby causing loss to the exchequer and alleged personal enrichment.
In April, the ED had raided Arora and entities linked to him under the civil provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
Arora had then said that he would fully cooperate with the probe agencies and that he was confident that the truth will prevail.
The MLA from Ludhiana West was raided by the ED in 2024 too in a money laundering case linked to alleged misuse of industrial land for residential projects. Arora was then a Rajya Sabha MP.
Meanwhile, reacting to the raids, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, in a post on X, said that the ED had again conducted searches at Sanjeev Arora’s residence. He said it was the third time in a year and the second time in a month that such action had been taken. He added that despite repeated raids, nothing had been found so far.
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mann further said that “Punjab is the land of Gurus and Bhagat Singh” and asserted that it would not bow down, adding that the state would “end such political actions”, referring to what he called an “ED-BJP alliance.”
