The Enforcement Directorate has seized unaccounted cash valuing ₹12.15 lakh and frozen ₹4.01 crore in bank accounts following recent searches in a money laundering case involving illegal industrial plot allotment by the Punjab Small Industries & Export Corporation (PSIEC) that resulted in an ₹8.73-crore loss to the state.
The federal agency had conducted searches at 11 locations in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Ludhiana, along with a survey at the PSIEC office in Chandigarh, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for three days from August 4.
“Various incriminating evidences were gathered and unaccounted cash valuing ₹12.15 lakh was recovered. Another ₹4.01 crore were frozen in the bank accounts of PSIEC officials, including former chief general manager Surinder Pal Singh and former general manager Jaswinder Singh Randhawa,” said an ED spokesperson on Thursday.
The agency also confiscated various incriminating documents and seized digital devices.
The ED searches stemmed from an FIR registered by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on March 8, 2024, against six top officials of the PSIEC for allegedly misusing their official positions and wrongly allotting expensive industrial plots to their relatives, friends and known persons.
The VB had arrested Surinder Pal Singh and Jaswinder Singh Randhawa on March 8, 2024, while booking estate officer Amarjeet Singh Kahlon, senior assistant Vijay Gupta, consultant Darshan Garg, and sub-divisional Engineer Savtej Singh.
{{/usCountry}}The VB had arrested Surinder Pal Singh and Jaswinder Singh Randhawa on March 8, 2024, while booking estate officer Amarjeet Singh Kahlon, senior assistant Vijay Gupta, consultant Darshan Garg, and sub-divisional Engineer Savtej Singh.
{{/usCountry}}The officials were accused of waiving revenue for 14 plots located in Industrial Area, Mohali. Later, the occupants allegedly earned huge profits by selling these plots through property dealers at market rates.
Plots allotted to people with no knowledge of industries: ED
The agency spokesperson said investigation revealed that the industrial plots were allotted to persons having no knowledge of technical industries.
“Fake firms and fake addresses were used by private persons in the application form while applying for the industrial plots, and through close connections with PSIEC officials, the industrial plots were allotted to these persons,” it added.
The ED stated that possession of the plots was also not provided in the stipulated time and was delayed for many years. The intermediate period was considered as “zero period” and allotments dates were shifted forward by many years for payment plans with zero interest rates for the intermediate period.
‘Huge bribes exchanged’
“Probe has revealed that the illegal allotments were made in lieu of huge bribes, received directly or indirectly by the officials through cash transactions and layered financial arrangements. Several allotments were made in the names of shell entities and fictitious firms, which were subsequently used to sell the allotted plots at prevailing market rates to third-party outsiders, thereby generating substantial proceeds,” the agency said.
Further, it was revealed that plots allotted for establishing industries were bifurcated and diverted for residential/ commercial plotting, it added.
According to ED, it came to light that one of the former general managers reportedly received a bribe of ₹2 crore for transferring the plot from his benamidar to a prospective industrialist, whereas two former officials bought the plots in the name of a benamidar and later sold them at market rate while depositing the price at the old allotment rate with PSIEC.
“We are also investigating the alleged role of PSIEC officials and private persons for the diversion and change of land use of the industrial plots allotted in Ludhiana by real estate developers to top notch industrial units,” an ED official said.
The agency official added that the real estate developers diverted industrial plots for residential use, generating windfall profit for themselves while causing a loss to the state exchequer and providing no benefit to the end user despite getting land at a very cheap price.