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Mohali court frames charges against Sukhpal Khaira under PMLA
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira currently lodged in a jail in a drugs case, appeared before the court of additional district and sessions judge Avtar Singh, who framed the charges under the PMLA
The Mohali court on Friday framed charges against Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002.
Khaira, currently lodged in a jail in a drugs case, appeared before the court of additional district and sessions judge Avtar Singh, who framed the charges under the PMLA. The next hearing of the case has been scheduled for November 11.
The charges have been pressed against Khaira in an Enforcement Directorate (ED) case. His lawyer son Mehtab Singh Khaira accompanied him in the Mohali district court.
Following the arguments, Mehtab Khaira stated, “He was brought from Nabha jail and returned after the court appearance. Our stance is clear that he has been falsely implicated in the cases, and we will contest our case until the very end to prove his innocence.”
In November 2021, Khaira was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case associated with an alleged drug and fake passport racket.
A chargesheet was presented in the court against him and co-accused Gurdev Singh. The primary allegations against Khaira include aiding an international smuggling ring, providing them with refuge, and benefiting financially from drug smugglers.
The ED chargesheet claims that an amount of ₹6.61 crore was spent by Khaira, which is way more than his known sources of income of ₹2. 78 crore for the period of April 1, 2014, and March 31, 2020.
“Khaira spent ₹3.82 crore more than his income during the relevant period of heroin smuggling, which is the proceeds of crime obtained/received from international drug syndicate in lieu of protection/passage provided for smuggling of narcotic drugs. Cash payments of ₹3.82 crore were made by Gurdev Singh, former market committee chairman from Bholath to Khaira, and he also had funded election campaigns of Khaira out of the proceeds of crime derived from illegal drugs business which are scheduled offences under the PMLA,” the ED probe revealed.
On September 28 this year, the Congress MLA was arrested by the Fazilka police from his residence in Chandigarh. The arrest was made based on the findings of a special investigation team (SIT) formed to investigate a 2015 case involving him.
According to the investigating agency’s chargesheet, the funds received were allegedly utilised for property acquisitions. The relationship between AAP and Congress has been deteriorating continuously since the arrest of Khaira.
Notably, in March 2015, the police registered an FIR in a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. As the trial went on, nine people were convicted in 2017 after the police recovered two kg heroin, 24 gold biscuits, one country-made pistol, and two Pakistani SIM cards from them. Subsequently, Khaira’s name cropped up during the investigation as an additional accused.
In 2021, Khaira — who has been a vocal critic of Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal — was arrested by the ED on charges of money laundering linked with the same FIR in which he was arrested in September. However, the court granted him bail in 2022.
On February 16, 2023, a Supreme Court bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath quashed the summoning order against Khaira in the drugs case.
