Himachal illegal mining case: ED arrests alleged mastermind Lakhwinder Singh under PMLA
New Delhi, September 28
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said it has arrested Lakhwinder Singh, the alleged mastermind of illegal mining in the Una district of Himachal Pradesh under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In an official statement the ED said, Singh was taken into custody on September 26 under the criminal sections of the PMLA and he was produced before a special court in Dharamshala yesterday and was being sent to five days in the agency’s custody.
“Lakhwinder Singh is the key person, who owns and controls several mining leases/sites and stone crushers in Una district of Himachal Pradesh and is the mastermind and prime beneficiary of the proceeds of crime generated from illegal mining,” the ED alleged in its statement, while adding that he “resorted to withholding relevant information and was misleading the investigation”.
The agency had recently carried out raids in this case against stone crushers owned by Lakhwinder Singh, Manav Khanna, Neeraj Prabhakar, Vishal alias Vicky and others at Una and in Mohali (Punjab) and Panchkula (Haryana) in connection with illegal mining in the Swan River of the district, it said, adding that illegal mining worth Rs 35 crore has been carried out by the accused and certain linked stone crushers and other entities in Una.
The ED’s case under provisions of the PMLA stems from an FIR registered by the Una Police last year.
“To physically ascertain the extent of illegal mining, a joint digital survey along with state mining officials has been carried out at the mining sites owned and controlled by the persons involved, which revealed about 4.8 lakh cubic meter of excess mining had been carried out,” the ED alleged in the statement.
