E-Paper
Illegal-mining case: FIR registered against five firms ‘linked’ to Dilbag Singh, 12 aides
The move comes nearly two weeks after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Dilbag Singh and his aide Kulwinder Singh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)
The Yamunanagar police on Friday, registered an FIR against former MLA Dilbag Singh, his 12 partners and five firms reportedly linked with them.
The move comes nearly two weeks after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Dilbag Singh and his aide Kulwinder Singh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The case was registered on the complaint of the joint director of ED’s Gurugram Zone Navneet Agrawal under Sections 120-B (whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, 21(1) of Mines and Minerals Act, and 15 and 16 of Environment Protection Act at Pratap Nagar police station. HT has a copy of the FIR.
The ED had on January 4 raided 20 premises linked to them under the provisions of the PMLA, in Faridabad, Sonepat, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Chandigarh and Mohali.
After the searches, the ED said in this fresh FIR , “..during the investigation, it was revealed that the firms and the related persons have violated environmental norms such as in-stream mining, using heavy machinery during the odd hours, diversion of the flow of River Yamuna by laying of layer of sand in the lease area to extract the more quantity of sand from the lease area.”
“It was also revealed that these entities/persons have issued fake e-rawanas or not issued e-rawanas for transportation, done mining despite a clear ban by NGT, mined beyond permissible limits, not followed rules/regulations prescribed by the Environment (Protection) Act. Such proceeds earned out of illegal unscientific mining have been routed through various dummy entities in fictitious names, depositing huge cash in those entities and layering such money into their personal bank accounts, related companies or entities. They are involved in money laundering and are in possession of proceeds of crime or records,” it further said.
The central agency alleged that entities like M/S Delhi Royalty Company, M/S Mubarikpur Royalty Company, M/S Development Strategies (India) Pvt Ltd, JSM Foods Pvt Ltd and PS Buildtech and persons Dilbag Singh, Rajinder Singh, Kulwinder Singh (PS Buildtech), Manoj Kumar Wadhwa, Angad Singh Makkad, Gurpartap Singh Mann, Raman Ojha, Rajesh Chikara, Inderpal Singh, Naseeb Singh, Nirmal Roy, Mukesh Bansal and Ranbir Singh Rana, in connivance with others were involved in rampant and unscientific mining in the mines allotted to them, thus violating the norms.
Third FIR against the former MLA
This is the third FIR against Dilbag after the ED raids. Earlier, the police registered two separate cases on the recovery of firearms and liquor.
The agency had claimed a total cash recovery of ₹5.29 crore and seizure of gold valued around ₹1.89 crore, two vehicles, five illegal firearms, numerous cartridges and rounds of ammunition along with 138 bottles of liquor, various electronic devices, documents related to investment in India and abroad and various other documents of incriminating nature.
The fresh FIR further read that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in its two orders in 2022 found M/S Delhi Royalty Company, M/S Mubarikpur Royalty Company and M/S Development Strategies (India) Pvt Ltd guilty of violating the environmental norms and doing illegal mining, for which they were penalised. It stated that they were allotted areas for mining in Radaur and Chhachhrauli in 2016 and later based on the observations of the monitoring committee established by the green court, an order was passed on November 18, 2022, that from violating the requirement of undertaking replenishment study, not developing green belt, not implementing progressive mine closure plan, not installing CCTV cameras and not having GPS, diversion of river flow, illegal in-stream mining and not providing weigh bridge at the entry of the mining lease area are clear violations. It was also found that they further violated norms, like not installing boundary pillars, continuing mining even after termination of the lease, and using groundwater transported through tankers instead of using treated sewage water, FIR stated.
“Further, on an application filed before the NGT with an appeal to direct the concerned authorities to stop mining activity by JSM foods and PS Buildtech at Mandoli Gaggar West and East, Kanalsi and Jairam Jagir of the district…” FIR read adding that on this the green court passed an interim order on May 31, 2022, to stop the mining of boulders and gravels at the sites.
But based on information, it was found that illegal and unscientific mining was carried out on rampant scale by Delhi Royalty, Mubarikpur Royalty and Development Strategies and to gather further evidence of persons involved in money laundering and record of proceeds of crime, searches were carried out on January 04, 2024, at the premises of all the five firms and its partners and directors, along with the residential premises of the directors of JSM Foods and business premises of PS Buildtech, the FIR added.
