Punjab Govt plans to base Sukhpal Khaira probe on ED report in PMLA case

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, October 10

The state government plans to base its investigation into the drug case against Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira on the probe conducted against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

A top functionary said the government had asked the special investigation team (SIT) to look into the 80-page investigation report prepared by the ED in connection with the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). To verify and re-investigate the findings of the ED report, the SIT today got two-day remand of Khaira from a Jalalabad court. Khaira was arrested last month.

“The ED report establishes tele-connectivity between the MLA, Gurdev Singh (a convict in the drug smuggling case), Khaira’s PA Manish Kumar and PSO Joga Singh and Charanjeet Kaur. The report mentions how the MLA got involved in the offence committed by Gurdev Singh and how the latter bore expenses of the MLA’s election campaign. The report, a copy of which is with the SIT, proves that Gurdev Singh was passing on the proceeds of drug smuggling to the MLA,” he said.

A copy of the ED investigation report, which is also with The Tribune, states: “Instead of paying his outstanding loans, he was bearing the expenses of election campaign of Sukhpal Singh Khaira, which makes it clear that Gurdev Singh was passing on the proceeds of crime to Sukhpal Singh Khaira for funding his election campaign in lieu of help/protection in conducting the predicate offence… i.e. smuggling of narcotics. Further, Gurdev Singh was utilising the proceeds of crime not only for bearing election expenses of Khaira, but was also paying him in cash.”

Sukhpal Singh Khaira’s son Mehtab Singh Khaira, however, claimed that the case filed against his father was lame. “When a case is filed under the PMLA, the onus of proving one’s innocence lies on the accused. The ED investigation being relied upon by the Punjab Police SIT has not taken into account various facts,” he said.

“After making allegations that expenditure between April 1, 2014, and March 31, 2020, was Rs 3.82 crore more than the known sources of income, the ED report said the money was paid to my father by Gurdev Singh. However, we have submitted records showing how we raised crop loan worth Rs 99 lakh each on two occasions (February 2016 and November 2019). The remaining Rs 1.82 crore was taken as advance lease money for the agricultural land leased out by us,” he added.

Proceeds of drug smuggling

• The govt has asked the SIT to look into the 80-page probe report prepared by the ED in connection with a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act
• The ED report, a copy of which is with the SIT, proves that Gurdev Singh, a convict in the case, was passing on the drug smuggling proceeds to the MLA

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#Congress #drug menace #Enforcement Directorate #Sukhpal Khaira