ED raids premises of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, others

The Enforcement Directorate’s Jalandhar team on Monday raided the premises of Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjeev Arora (61) and some other persons, including realtors and investors involved in his businesses. The raids were conducted in connection with a case of suspected money laundering.

Arora’s company Ritesh Properties and Industries Limited (RPIL) had reportedly been allotted an industrial plot in Ludhiana by the state government. The land measuring 43 acres was to be reportedly developed as an industrial park, but as the chairman-cum-managing director of the company, he breached the allotment conditions by setting up a residential and commercial project at the site. Arora’s RPIL had also been imposed a penalty for the violation by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2012.

The raids began early this morning at Hamptom Homes, developed by Sanjeev Arora’s RPIL, and the premises of two other directors of the company, Hemant Sood in Ludhiana and Chander Shekhar Aggarwal in Jalandhar. The raids started simultaneously at Sood’s house in Sarabha Nagar and an office on the Ferozepur road (Ludhiana) and Aggarwal’s house at GTB Nagar and an office along the Nakodar road (Jalandhar).

Another suspect in the case is Pardeep Aggarwal of Royal Industries in Ludhiana. He is also learnt to have violated the conditions of allotment of another industrial plot in a similar way. The ED sleuths raided his villa at Janpath Estate and office on the Canal road opposite Rajgarh Estate at Ludhiana. Raids were also learnt to have been conducted at Sandhu Hosiery of late Harbhajan Singh Sandhu in the same connection.

Arora, in his tweet at 10.08 am, wrote: “I am a law abiding citizen, am not sure about the reason for search operation, will cooperate fully with agencies and make sure all their queries are answered.”

Arora is also on the board of over 10 more companies, including Hampton Sky Realty Limited, Kripra Real Estate Private Limited, Ritesh Spinning Mills Limited, Ritesh Impex Private Limited, Godwin Securities Private Limited, Kamal Oil and Allied Industries, RPIL Healthcare Private Limited and HB Fibres Limited.

AAP leader Manish Sisodia tweeted in favour of Arora alleging that PM Narendra Modi had been misusing the ED to target AAP leaders.

“In the past two years, they have raided the residences of Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh, Satyendra Jain and even mine. They got nothing anywhere and are just making false cases to shatter the party. Our party leaders shall not stop or fall into the trap fearing the agencies,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, AAP leaders, workers and supporters gathered on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh road and protested against the government for targeting leaders of the Opposition parties.