Punjab: Drug racket kingpin Jagdish Bhola gets 10-year jail in money-laundering case
Of the 23 accused, two are proclaimed offenders and four are dead. Those convicted include two women, including Bhola’s wife Gurpreet Kaur, who have been sentenced for three years.
A Mohali court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced 17 people, including kingpin Jagdish Singh Bhola, a dismissed deputy superintendent of police (DSP), to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment in a drugs-linked money-laundering case.
A Mohali court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced 17 people, including kingpin Jagdish Singh Bhola, a dismissed deputy superintendent of police (DSP), to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment in a drugs-linked money-laundering case. (HT file photo)
The special PMLA court also fined him ₹50,000 failing which he would have to undergo a further imprisonment of one year.
Bhola’s associates named in the money-laundering case have been sentenced to jail for terms ranging from three to 10 years.
The Enforcement Directorate had named 23 people as accused in the multi-crore synthetic narcotics racket after investigation into money laundering was initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2013 on the basis of eight FIRs registered at different police stations of Punjab during the SAD-BJP government’s tenure.
Of the 23 accused, two are proclaimed offenders and four are dead. Those convicted include two women, including Bhola’s wife Gurpreet Kaur, who have been sentenced for three years.
The ED arrested Bhola in 2014.
Property worth ₹95 crore has been provisionally attached in the case.
Investigating officer and former ED deputy director Niranjan Singh said the sentences were handed out based on his investigation.