Haryana’s Congress MLA Surender Panwar arrested by ED in illegal mining case

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, July 20

The Directorate of Enforcement has arrested Haryana’s Congress MLA Surender Panwar. 

The Sonepat MLA was arrested from Gurugram past midnight an “illegal” mining-linked money-laundering case. He was sent to nine-day ED custody by a court in Ambala on Saturday.

The federal agency had raided the premises of the 55-year-old legislator in January.

It had then arrested former Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) legislator from Yamunanagar, Dilbag Singh, and one of his associates in the case.

The money-laundering case stems from several FIRs registered by the Haryana Police for probing alleged illegal mining of boulders, gravel and sand that took place in the past in Yamunanagar and nearby districts in spite of a ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The ED is also probing an alleged fraud in the “e-Ravana” scheme, an online portal that was introduced by the Haryana government in 2020 to simplify collection of royalties and taxes and prevent tax evasion in mining areas.