ED arrests Punjab AAP MLA in bank fraud-linked money laundering case

Chandigarh, Punjab AAP MLA Jaswant Singh Gajjan Majra was arrested on Monday by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering investigation linked to a bank fraud case, official sources said. The lawmaker was taken into custody under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after agency officials detained him from a public meeting he was to hold in Malerkotla, they said.

Sources said that Gajjan Majra, a lawmaker from Amargarh assembly constituency, had skipped many summons issued to him in the past and hence, was detained by the officials and then arrested after questioning.

Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang alleged that the manner in which Gajjan Majra was taken out of a public meeting by the ED shows the BJP’s politics of defaming the party.

He said the MLA was facing a case since before he joined AAP.

The central agency raided the MLA and several others in September last year as part of this PMLA probe which stemmed from a March 2022 FIR filed by the CBI (Anti-Corruption Branch, Chandigarh).

The CBI FIR was registered against Tara Corporation Limited (TCL), renamed Malaudh Agro Limited on September 24, 2018, its directors Jaswant Singh (Gajjan Majra), Balwant Singh, Kulwant Singh, Tejinder Singh, the their comrades and other brotherly concerns in Ludhiana, Malerkotla, Khanna, Payal and Dhuri. The ED said it recovered mobile phones, hard drives and Indian currency worth Rs 32 lakh from multiple places searched. It said that Bank of India’s Model Town branch in Ludhiana had sanctioned a loan on cash credit limits aggregating Rs 35 crore to the company as against hypothecation of stocks and book debts on 23.09.2011 under a single banking arrangement.

“The account was also sanctioned with an ad hoc limit of Rs 6 crore in February 2014 which is yet to be paid by the company,” the agency said.

The TCL account was declared a Non-Performing Asset on March 31, 2014, the ED said.

It added that the aggregate loan outstanding is Rs 76 crore and Jaswant Singh, Balwant Singh, Kulwant Singh and Tejinder Singh are directors and guarantors in the loan account of Tara Corporation Limited.

“When a fresh RoC (Registrar of Companies) search was initiated by the bank in May 2016, it was observed that there had been drastic changes in the directors of the company (without intimation or prior consent of the bank) and Kirpal Singh Tiwana, Si Harish Kumar and Lakhbir Singh have been appointed as directors of TCL and principal Balwant Singh has resigned as director,” the ED said.

Later, Balwant Singh was reappointed as director of the company on May 25, 2016, it said.

“Based on the information available, an investigation has been initiated against the above mentioned and their associates to ascertain the money laundering activities they are doing for the laundering of their proceeds of crime,” the agency added.