‘Money laundering’ case: HC orders release of former INLD MLA, his aide
HC on Thursday ordered release of former Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Dilbag Singh and his aide, Kulwinder Singh, in an alleged case of money laundering. Both were arrested by the ED on January 8 after raids, which continued for four days, on the allegations of money laundering in connection with eight FIRs of criminal conspiracy and cheating in which they are not arrayed as accused.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday ordered release of former Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA Dilbag Singh and his aide, Kulwinder Singh, in an alleged case of money laundering.
Both were arrested by the ED on January 8 after raids, which continued for four days, on the allegations of money laundering in connection with eight FIRs of criminal conspiracy and cheating in which they are not arrayed as accused.
Raids were conducted on the duo’s premises from January 4 to January 8 and they remained within the premises during this period. The high court bench of justice Vikas Bahl termed their arrest illegal and said that they should have been produced before a magistrate within 24 hours when the alleged raids started as they remained detained from January 4. The court also recorded “non-application of mind and non-recording of compliance of the conditions/stipulations contained in Section 19 of the PMLA Act” by the special court while giving custody to the ED on January 9 and, subsequently, sending them to judicial custody on January 23.
The duo had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court on January 15 alleging illegal detention and that the arrest was not in conformity with the provisions of Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which deals with various rights of a person being arrested by the ED, including right to be informed about the grounds of arrest and further that designated officers had reasons to believe that the offence had been committed.
Close to Chautalas, Dilbag’s daughter is married to senior INLD leader and Ellenabad MLA Abhay Chautala’s younger son Arjun Chautala. He was first elected from the Yamunanagar seat in the 2009 assembly elections, defeating Devender Chawla from the Congress. In 2019, he unsuccessfully contested from the seat against BJP’s Ghanshyam Das Arora.
In the raids carried out on various firms linked to Singh in 23 locations, the ED had claimed cash recovery of ₹5.29 crore and seizure of gold valued around ₹1.89 crore, two vehicles, five illegal firearms, numerous cartridges and rounds of ammunition along with 138 bottles of liquor, various electronic devices and documents, etc.
The court observed that the petitioners shown arrested on January 9 and in case the preliminary scrutiny of documents had been done on January 10, subsequent to arrest on January 8, then the question of the arresting officer having formed the reason to believe in writing that the petitioners were guilty of an offence under the 2002 Act on the basis of the material in his possession, becomes “highly doubtful”.
