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Money laundering: HC rejects ED’s plea for Khaira’s custody
The Punjab and Haryana high court has dismissed the enforcement directorate’s plea seeking custody of Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in the alleged money laundering case
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday dismissed the enforcement directorate’s (ED) plea seeking custody of Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in the alleged money laundering case.
The plea filed on November 24 was dismissed by the bench of justice Sureshwar Thakur. The detailed order is awaited.
The ED in this plea has challenged a Mohali court order, which denied it Khaira’s remand and sent him to judicial custody on November 18. While seeking the Congress leader’s seven-day custody, the ED had claimed that he was an accomplice of drug case convicts and fake passport racketeers.
Khaira is also to be questioned about the source of funds that he got from the United States for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2016, the plea stated. The ED had also claimed that he did not cooperate during the custody. Khaira won the assembly election in 2017 from Bholath on the AAP ticket. He later rebelled and floated a party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, before resigning as the MLA and joining the Congress in June this year.
The ED arrested him on November 11 under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The central probe agency had also raided his premises in March this year.
Proceedings have been initiated in connection with a 2015 FIR. A court had convicted four persons and by the same order, Khaira was summoned as “additional accused”. In December 2017, the Supreme Court stayed his summoning. Khaira has all along maintained that these proceedings are part of “political vendetta”.
Khaira, who is in judicial custody, also approached the high court on Monday seeking bail. Acting on the plea, the high court has directed the ED to file a detailed status report within a week.
