Chandigarh : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Congress leader and former Punjab forest minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot from Jalandhar under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in an investigation linked to an alleged forest scam.
An ED official said Dharamsot was grilled for nearly six hours under the provisions of the PMLA as he allegedly diverted funds worth crores accumulated during his tenure as forest minister during Congress regime from 2017-2022. “His responses were unsatisfactory following which he was arrested,” the official said.
The ED had raided the premises of Dharamsot, another forest minister of the state Sangat Singh Gilzian, some forest department officials and others on November 30 last year.
Dharamsot, who held the forest department portfolio in the then Amarinder Singh-led cabinet, was the first former minister to be arrested during the tenure of the Aam Aadmi Party government for allegedly taking kickbacks to issue permits to cut trees, transfer officials, make purchases and issue no-objection certificates, on June 7, 2022.
The Congress leader remained in jail till September 6, 2022, before securing a bail. Over a dozen officials and bureaucrats have also been booked in the case. On February 7, 2023, the VB again arrested him for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. He was out on bail in both the cases.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress leader remained in jail till September 6, 2022, before securing a bail. Over a dozen officials and bureaucrats have also been booked in the case. On February 7, 2023, the VB again arrested him for amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. He was out on bail in both the cases.
{{/usCountry}}“The ED has found that the former minister collected ₹1.5 crore through illegal gratification and had amassed ₹5 crore more than his known sources of income,” said an ED official, not wishing to be named.
The ED had taken documents from the vigilance bureau, which had conducted investigations in the forest scam and registered two FIRs against the former minister and forest officials. The ED will produce Dharamsot in a PMLA court in Mohali on Tuesday.
“Forest department contractor Harminder Singh Hummy had disclosed in his statement recorded under section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act that he had been maintaining a handwritten diary regarding bribes given to senior officers of the forest department, political leaders since 2017. The diary was recovered from his place. The perusal and investigation into the contents of the diary has revealed the modus operandi of the culprits which led to their arrests,” said an official.
In his statement, Hummy had said he paid ₹ 500 for the felling of each khair tree to Dharamsot. He had obtained permits for cutting 7,000 trees for the October-March season for which he had to pay of ₹ 1,000 per tree, which includes payment of ₹500 to Dharamsot, ₹ 200 to divisional forest officer and ₹ 100 each to range officer, block officer and forest guard, respectively, the contractor had said in the statement recorded under the Evidence Act.
“Dharamsot used to get bribe in lakhs for the of ₹10 to 20 lakh for the transfer of DFO, ₹5 to 8 lakh for ranger, ₹5 lakh for block officer and ₹2 to 3 lakh for forest guard through his OSD. Besides, during his three-year tenure as the forests minister, Dharamsot collected ₹1 crore in lieu of issuance of permits for cutting of khair trees through his OSD Kamaljit Singh,” said an ED official privy to the investigation.
(Inputs from Navrajdeep Singh in Jalandhar)