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PMLA case: 2-time MLA Khanna summoned by ED
Khanna, who joined the BJP in January 2022 just ahead of the assembly polls in Punjab, has been summoned on January 30, it is learnt. He is currently the senior vice-president of the BJP’s Punjab unit.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned BJP leader and two-time MLA Arvind Khanna in a case of Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Khanna, who joined the BJP in January 2022 just ahead of the assembly polls in Punjab, has been summoned on January 30, it is learnt. He is currently the senior vice-president of the BJP’s Punjab unit.
According to information, Khanna was first asked to appear before the agency on January 15 through summons issued on January 6. The summons were issued by ED assistant director Deepak Kumar. Khanna is learnt to have skipped these summons.
Sources in the ED said Khanna has been summoned in the probe related to alleged Embraer corruption case in which kickbacks of USD 5.76 million were allegedly paid to swing a three-aircraft deal with the DRDO in favour of the Brazilian firm in 2008. The ED also filed a chargesheet in the case in 2020.
The CBI filed a chargesheet in June 2023 against arms dealers Arvind Khanna, advocate Gautam Khaitan, and businessman Anup Gupta. In its chargesheet filed in a special CBI court recently, the agency has invoked Section 120-B of the IPC, which pertains to criminal conspiracy, and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Among the accused persons named in the first information report (FIR) were defence consultant and Arvind Khanna’s father Vipin Khanna, against whom the proceedings have been dropped after his death. The commission was allegedly paid to him through a Singapore-based company, Interdev, in 2009.
Khanna, when contacted, feigned ignorance about any summoning by the ED. “I am yet to come across any such summons,” he said.
