Jalandhar, Nov 6 — The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted search operations at 14 locations in Punjab and Chandigarh in connection with a money laundering investigation against Sunder Sham Arora, former Punjab Industries and Commerce Minister, his son Parteek Arora and their aides, an official said on Friday.
The ED's Jalandhar Zonal Office conducted search operations on November 2 and 3 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the ED official said in a statement.
The search operations resulted in the recovery and seizure of mobile phones, incriminating documents, property documents, records relating to Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) plots, digital devices and freezing of bank lockers, the ED said.
"The premises searched by the ED include the residential premises of Sunder Sham Arora at Hoshiarpur, Shivam Hospital in Hoshiarpur and premises linked to SRG Builders and Promoters Private Limited, GRG Developers and Promoters LLP, Gulmohar Township India Private Limited and their promoters, directors and associates in Chandigarh and Mohali," the statement said.
The ED investigation was initiated on the basis of FIR registered by Punjab Vigilance Bureau under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, against Sunder Sham Arora and amassing assets disproportionate to the known source of income.
"Arora had allegedly offered a bribe of Rs 1 crore to a senior officer of the Vigilance Bureau to settle the enquiries pending against him and was arrested red-handed on October 15, 2022, at Zirakpur while handing over Rs 50 lakh in cash as advance payment," the ED said.
The ED investigation has revealed that Sunder Sham Arora, during his tenure as Punjab Minister of Industries and Commerce from March 2017 to September 2021, had direct control over the functioning of PSIEC.
During this period, he extended undue favours to private real estate players in the transfer of high-value PSIEC industrial plots and, in return, acquired stakes in real estate entities in the name of his son Parteek Arora, the ED said.
Industrial Plot number A-32 at Phase 8 in Mohali originally allotted by PSIEC to JCT Electronics (now bankrupt), was transferred to GRG Developers and Promoters LLP for Rs 90.56 crore through an auction conducted by ARCIL in February 2020, the ED added.
"Although PSIEC was entitled to 50 per cent of the sale value as unearned increase, besides enhanced land cost and transfer fee, under the terms of the lease deed, these dues were never fully paid to PSIEC," the central agency said.
"Even after the tripartite agreement between PSIEC, ARCIL and GRG was cancelled in August 2021, no steps were taken to cancel the lease deed or resume the plot. The then Minister Sunder Sham Arora approved proposals for post facto approvals regarding the calculation of unearned increase and enhanced fees and was directly involved in the affairs of the plot," the ED said.
Bank records further show that Sunder Sham Arora, through his son Parteek Arora, also invested in the purchase of the said plot, the ED investigation said.