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ED plea on quashing Congress Udhampur candidate’s bail to be taken up day after Lok Sabha polls
Released on bail in a money laundering case on November 24 last year, Congress’ Choudhary Lal Singh has been bidding to upset Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh from Udhampur
The Jammu and Kashmir high court (HC) has listed a petition of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking cancellation of the bail for Choudhary Lal Singh in a money laundering case for April 19.
Notably, Lal Singh filed the nomination papers from Udhampur, which goes to polls on April 19.
Released on bail on November 24 last year, he has been bidding to upset Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh in the contest.
“Citing various provisions of the provisions of prevention of money laundering act, the Enforcement Directorate has petitioned the Jammu and Kashmir high court to cancel the bail granted to Choudhary Lal Singh,” official sources confided to HT.
The case could not be taken up on Tuesday and the HC has now listed the case on April 20, they added.
While the ED petition seeking cancellation of the bail to the former minister is listed for April 20, the ED is also in the process of preparing the charge-sheet, which may be filed anytime soon,” sources divulged.
The two-time MP was arrested by the ED last year in an alleged money laundering case registered against an educational trust run by his wife and former MLA Kanta Andotra.
The ED is now seeking the cancellation of Lal Singh’s bail through their appeal to the High Court. The agency had arrested Lal Singh last year. After spending some days in ED custody and jail, he was bailed out.
On November 18, 2023, Lal Singh was sent to judicial remand to Jammu district jail at Ambphalla by an anti-corruption court in the case against RB educational trust.
Principal sessions judge Justice Sanjay Parihar had granted interim bail to Singh on November 24 with certain conditions.
The court observed that the accused has to fulfil certain conditions, like furnishing a surety and personal bonds of ₹2 lakh each before the court, surrendering his passport before the ED and to remain present before the ED as and when called and render all possible help to the ED in its probe.
Meanwhile, in a setback to the BJP, former party MLA from Hiranagar, Durga Dass joined the Congress here on Tuesday.
Dass, who had won the Assembly polls on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket from the Hiranagar constituency in Kathua, joined the Congress along with Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) leader Mohammad Iqbal Dar at a function, said a Congress spokesperson.
The new entrants were welcomed into the party fold by Congress in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir Bharatsinh Solanki, All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Manoj Yadav, Pradesh Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool Wani and the party’s candidates in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls — Choudhary Lal Singh and Raman Bhalla.
