3 top fashion designers asked to appear before E.D. in PMLA case

ED believes that Punjab Congress legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira made certain cash payments, around ₹15-16 lakh in total, to the three designers on different occasions in 2018-19 and wants to seek clarifications in this context, said an agency officer.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned three top fashion designers, Manish Malhotra, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Ritu Kumar , in connection with a money laundering probe against Punjab Congress legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.

The designers have been told to appear at the agency’s headquarters in central Delhi’s Khan Market over the next two days.

ED believes that Khaira made certain cash payments, around ₹15-16 lakh in total, to the three designers on different occasions in 2018-19 and wants to seek clarifications in this context, said an agency officer.

Khaira is already under investigation in two cases registered by the federal agency earlier this year to probe money laundering charges linked to a trans-border drugs smuggling network unearthed in Fazilka, Punjab in 2015, and a fake passport racket in Delhi.

The agency carried out searches at the residence of Khaira and his son-in-law Inderveer Singh Johal in March and the two have subsequently been questioned a few times. Khaira was last questioned by ED on Wednesday.

The designers have been told to appear at the agency’s headquarters in central Delhi’s Khan Market over the next two days. Two of them are already in touch with ED officials, said an agency official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

HT reached out to the three designers but there was no comment till filing of this report.

The politician or his legal team could not be contacted for comments. But in the past, Khaira denied any wrongdoing and alleged that he was being targeted as he opposed Centre’s three new farm laws.

Khaira, who was earlier in the Congress, was elected MLA from Kapurthala’s Bholath seat in 2017 on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket and appointed leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly. He was removed from the post in July 2018 and later formed the Punjab Ekta Party (PEP). He rejoined the Congress earlier this month.

The Fazilka drugs case relates to the seizure of 1,800 grams of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, two weapons, 26 live cartridges and two Pakistani SIM cards by Jalalabad police (Punjab) in 2015. But it was only in 2017 that Khaira’s name cropped up during the investigations.

Although not named in the Punjab police charge-sheet, a Fazilka court summoned Khaira, then an AAP MLA, on November 30, 2017. However, the Supreme Court quashed the proceedings against him.