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Drugs case: ED seizes ₹4.5 crore, digital devices, incriminating documents
The ED conducted raids at 25 locations, including residence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Mohali Kulwant Singh, in connection with investigation into money trail that came to fore following the arrest of Ludhiana-based drug lord Akshay Chhabra and his aides
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has confiscated unaccounted cash worth ₹4.5 crore during the raids at 25 locations in Punjab on Tuesday. The raids went on till late Tuesday night, following which the ED prepared detailed proceedings on Wednesday.
The ED conducted raids at 25 locations, including residence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Mohali Kulwant Singh, in connection with investigation into money trail that came to fore following the arrest of Ludhiana-based drug lord Akshay Chhabra and his aides.
The ED official said the raids were conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at 25 residential and commercial premises belonging to Akshay Kumar Chhabra and other associates in Ludhiana, Mohali, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar (Punjab) and Ganganagar in Rajasthan in the illegal drug trade case.
“During the search, over ₹4.5 crore, digital devices and various incriminating documents related to money trail and property transactions were recovered and seized,” an official said.
The raids were conducted on premises owned by top-notch realtors and liquor barons as both the ED and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) suspected Chhabra of investing drug money into real estate and liquor companies.
In November last year, the NCB arrested Chhabra along with two Afghan nationals for smuggling 2,000-kg heroin into Punjab in connivance with Dubai-based drug smuggler Haji Yusuf.
Both the NCB and ED were carrying independent investigations into the cross-border drug smuggling racket worth more than ₹300 crore.
Even in the NCB’s probe, it was established that Chhabra amassed money by running cross-border drug racket and established real estate companies in Mohali, Zirakpur, Ludhiana and Jalandhar.
Investigations revealed that Chhabra, who used to work in a chemist shop in Ludhiana, become Punjab drug kingpin in three years as he managed to procure heroin and other raw material from Afghanistan and Pakistan before he was nabbed by the NCB.
An official said Chhabra, a son of a tea vendor, had connections with not only drug peddlers, including Dubai-based Haji Yusuf, but companies who managed to procure contraband for him through three channels via Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Mundra Port, Gujarat.
Chhabra used to smuggle raw material from other countries and the Afghan nationals, pharmaceutical experts, used to make synthetic heroin at two laboratories located in Ludhiana, the investigation has revealed.
During investigation, the NCB found that Chhabra had 49 high-end properties across Punjab.
The NCB had recently arrested his brother-in-law, Sunny Verma, who used to handle his cash transactions, and recovered 79,000 Euros, suspected to be proceeds from drug trafficking activities and 2.5 kg gold from him.
Following his arrest by the NCB, Chhabra disclosed that between 2020 to 2022, he had delivered around 2,000 kg heroin, received from Haji Yusuf, and earned around ₹60 crore.
