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Money laundering case: Khaira sent to seven-day ED custody
Mohali A Mohali court on Friday sent former Punjab MLA and Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, arrested in a money laundering case, to seven-day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody
Mohali
A Mohali court on Friday sent former Punjab MLA and Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, arrested in a money laundering case, to seven-day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody.
On Thursday, the ED arrested Khaira and he was taken into custody by the central probe agency under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency had raided his premises in March this year. He was produced in a PMLA court in Mohali and sent to the ED custody for a day.
On Friday, the ED sought a remand for 13 days, but duty magistrate Ranjan Kumar Khullar ordered the remand for seven days.
Khaira will be produced in the Mohali court on November 18 after his remand period ends, said Khaira’s son Mehtab Khaira, who is also an advocate.
While coming out of the court, Khaira said he was “innocent” and termed the ED’s action as “total victimisation.” Khaira’s son also called his father’s arrest “unconstitutional and illegal.”
The ED has alleged that Khaira was an “accomplice” of a drug case convicts and fake passport racketeers.
The ED told the court they have to probe the source of funds that Khaira got from the US for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2016. The ED said Khaira was issued notices four times, but he did not cooperate.
Opposing the remand, Khaira’s lawyers Keshav Chaudhary and PS Walia pleaded that after the drug case, the ED summoned Khaira but they got stay from the Supreme Court. So, the ED couldn’t arrest him. Now, the ED filed a fresh case against Khaira, which is against the law. They also raised a question why hearing was going on in different courts instead of the ED court.
Meanwhile, Khaira’s son alleged that his father had been framed in false cases. He said in 2017, his father was framed in an NDPS case as one of his supporters was arrested and was later sentenced to 20 years in jail.
He said in the present case, Delhi chief minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had in 2016 asked Khaira to raise funds from NRIs living abroad. He said the ED had framed his father for bringing 1 lakh Canadian dollars and asked how anyone can bring such a huge amount from abroad. He said the ED, instead of checking the account of the AAP, was framing his father in the case which is “baseless”.
Khaira won the assembly election in 2017 from the Bholath assembly seat in Kapurthala district on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket. He resigned from the primary membership of the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP in January 2019 and floated his own outfit, Punjab Ekta Party. He then re-joined the Congress in June this year.
