ED arrests Haryana Congress MLA in money laundering case

Surendra Pawar: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Congress leader and Haryana MLA Surendra Pawar in a money laundering case related to "illegal" mining. Official sources gave this information on Saturday. Sources said that Pawar (55) was taken into custody from Gurugram in the early hours of Saturday. He said that the MLA will be produced in the special court of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Ambala, where the central agency will request to send him to custody. The agency had raided the premises linked to Pawar in January on charges of "large-scale illegal mining" in the Yamunanagar area of ​​the state.

INLD MLA was arrested

After this, the police arrested former Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) MLA from Yamunanagar Dilbagh Singh and one of his associates Kulwinder Singh in this case. Assembly elections for 90 seats in Haryana are to be held later this year. Several FIRs were registered by the Haryana Police regarding alleged illegal mining of stone, gravel and sand in Yamunanagar and its surrounding districts even after the ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). This money laundering case is also related to this.

What is the matter?

The central agency is also investigating the alleged fraud in the 'E-Ravana' scheme. 'E-Ravana' is an online portal launched by the Haryana government in 2020 to facilitate royalty and tax collection and prevent tax evasion in mining areas. According to the ED, it is estimated that about Rs 400-500 crore of illegal money was earned in the last few years through alleged illegal mining.