The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted searches at 11 premises linked to relatives of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Deepak Singla in connection with an alleged bank fraud involving M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd.
The raids were carried out at locations in Karnal, Delhi and Goa. Those searched include Ashok Kumar Mittal, Sourabh Dhingra, Bharat Bhushan Mittal, Raman Singhal and others. According to the ED, Singla, his brother Raman Singhal and their maternal uncle Ashok Kumar Mittal created and operated a network of interconnected firms in India and Singapore to execute fraudulent financial transactions.
Deepak Singla, AAP’s Goa incharge who contested the Vishwas Nagar Assembly seat in Delhi in the 2020 and 2025 elections, was arrested by the ED on May 18.
Reacting to the searches, AAP national convener and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal posted on X: “After finding nothing during raids on many of our leaders, the ED has now arrived to raid our grassroots workers across the country. All workers must remain strong. These people are cowards and faint-hearted. After humiliating the nation before Trump on the global stage, they mistake raiding ordinary people for a display of masculinity. Incidentally, if one wants to find the country’s ‘black money,’ it would be found at the homes of the two individuals who frequently buy up scores of MLAs and MPs. But then again, the ED operates under their very control."
The money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR against M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd, its directors and others for allegedly causing a loss of about Rs 155.21 crore to Oriental Bank of Commerce and other consortium banks.
According to the ED, the accused submitted forged Bills of Lading, Bills of Entry and fabricated contracts to banks for opening Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) and obtaining fraudulent enhancements. During remand proceedings before a Special PMLA Court in Panchkula, the agency stated: “Investigation has conclusively established that the Bills of Lading, Bills of Entry, and other supporting documents submitted by this nexus before the banks were forged and fictitious in nature… no actual import of goods, namely timber, had taken place."
The agency further told the court that Singla was a director in M/s Traffic Media India Pvt Ltd along with his brother Harish Singla, while Raman Singhal served as a director in Singapore-based Amazon Export Pte Ltd, which allegedly supplied timber to M/s Mahesh Timber Pvt Ltd.
The ED claimed examination of company records showed Traffic Media purchased “timber" and “imported timber" from Mahesh Timber over a long period. However, investigations by the CBI and the Directorate General of Systems and Data Management under the CBIC allegedly established that most import-related documents were “fake, forged, and fabricated", indicating that no genuine imports had taken place.
The Special PMLA Court had rejected Singla’s bail plea on June 6 after the ED argued that nearly Rs 143 crore allegedly siphoned off in the fraud was yet to be traced.
