Punjab CM's nephew accepted he received Rs 10 crore in cash for sand mining, transfer in state, claims ED

New Delhi, February 7

Bhupinder Singh alias Honey, the arrested nephew of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, has “accepted” that he received Rs 10 crore in cash in lieu of facilitating sand mining operations and transfer or posting of officials in the border state, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed in a statement on Monday.

He was taken into custody by the federal probe agency in Jalandhar on February 3 as part of its money laundering investigation into alleged sand mining operations in Punjab.

Honey is the son of Channi’s sister-in-law and he is in ED custody till Tuesday.

The agency had conducted raids against Honey and others on January 18 and seized about Rs 7.9 crore in cash from his premises and another about Rs 2 crore cash from a linked person, Sandeep Kumar.

The agency said in a statement that it has recorded the statements of Kudratdeep Singh, Bhupinder Singh (Honey), Honey’s father Santokh Singh and Sandeep Kumar during the searches and it was “established” that the seized Rs 10 crore “belonged to Bhupinder Singh s/o Santokh Singh.”

“Further, Bhupinder Singh accepted that he received the seized cash in lieu of facilitation in sand mining operations and transfer/posting of officials,” the ED claimed.

It said Honey was issued summons for his personal appearance before the agency on February 3 along with some documents.

“In response, he appeared and tendered his statement, wherein he, inter-alia, stated that he is involved in the mining-related activities, but took an evasive approach when confronted with incriminating data,” it said.

Honey, Kudratdeep Singh and Sandeep Kumar are stated to be the directors of a company called Providers Overseas Consultants Pvt Ltd that was raided by the ED last month in poll-bound Punjab.