ED gets 7-day custody of ex-minister Lal Singh

Our Correspondent

Jammu, November 8

A court in Jammu remanded Lal Singh, former Jammu and Kashmir minister and chairman of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP), in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for seven days.

He was arrested by the agency in a money laundering case on Tuesday, hours after an anti-corruption court dismissed his anticipatory bail application.

The case

• The Enforcement Directorate had been investigating Lal Singh in a case involving an educational Trust operated by his wife and former legislator, Kanta Andotra
• The case revolves around alleged irregularities in the land purchased for the Trust, with the CBI filing a chargesheet in October 2021
• His supporters claimed Singh was being targeted unjustly in a baseless case ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections

The ED had been investigating Singh in a case involving an educational Trust operated by his wife and former legislator, Kanta Andotra. Special public prosecutor Ashwani Khajuria revealed that the court granted the

ED seven-day remand against 14 days sought by

the agency. The judge

also considered Singh’s complaint about physical discomfort and ordered his medical examination.

Following discomfort, Singh was taken to Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu. He was discharged later in the day and brought directly to the court. However, Singh alleged that he did not receive proper medical treatment during his hospital visit and claimed that doctors were compelled to falsely state that he refused to undergo a CT scan.

Supporters of Singh gathered outside the hospital, protesting against the BJP and asserting that he was being unjustly targeted in a baseless case ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Singh, a former two-time Member Parliament and three-time MLA, had switched from the Congress to the BJP in 2014 and served as a minister in the previous PDP-BJP government until it collapsed in June 2018.

Prior to the government’s fall, Singh had resigned from the BJP and formed his own party in the wake of a controversy surrounding his participation in a rally supporting the accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January 2018. He had claimed that he attended the rally to “defuse the situation”.

The ED had previously conducted searches in Jammu and its surroundings in connection with the money laundering investigation targeting the Trust run by Andotra and a former government official. The case revolves around alleged irregularities in the land purchase for the Trust, with the CBI filing a chargesheet in October 2021.

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