Former BJP cabinet minister Lal Singh arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case

Singh was picked up by the ED from the residence of a local contractor and whisked away to the ED office for questioning

Chandra Maurya

November 8, 2023

Singh was picked up by the ED from the residence of a local contractor and whisked away to the ED office for questioning

Investigations in similar cases against Dr Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti still pending

While the investigations in the money laundering cases against two former chief ministers Dr Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti were still pending, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) late Tuesday night arrested two-time Member Parliament and supremo of Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan party, Choudhary Lal Singh soon after his pre-arrest bail application was rejected by the special CBI judge in Jammu in a money laundering case.

Singh was picked up by the ED from the residence of a local contractor and whisked away to the ED office for questioning.

The ED officer, however, witnessed high-voltage drama as a handful of supporters accompanied by his wife Kanta Andotra, herself a former MLA, staged protest demonstrations seeking his release. The agitated supporters and party workers alleged political vendetta behind the arrest of Lal Singh.

Two-time Congress MP, Lal Singh remained cabinet minister while PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti headed the PDP-BJP alliance government in Jammu and Kashmir.

He was later removed ‘unceremoniously’ from the state cabinet during the infamous Rasana rape and murder case investigation that was going on. Lal Singh later floated Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan and campaigned for a CBI probe to unravel the conspiracy and punish the guilty in the Rasana rape and murder case of a tribal girl.

Before arresting Lal Singh, ED had raided his residence and other commercial establishments in connection with money laundering in land allotment to RB Educational Trust of Choudhary in Kathua district on October 17. He also presented himself for questioning before the ED in Jammu.

Singh was currently out on bail. ED sleuths arrested him after Special Judge CBI Jammu Bala Joyti rejected his pre-arrest bail application while extending the bail application of Kanta Andotra and Dr. Kranti Singh up to November 30 in the same case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has also registered a separate case in the land case of RB Educational Trust nearly three years ago.

The CBI had registered the FIR against the RB Educational Trust for occupying a huge chunk of land over and above the ceiling of standard 100 kanal (12.5 acre) fixed by the Jammu and Kashmir government under provisions of the J&K Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976.

Nearly half a dozen retired and serving Revenue officials, who had allegedly helped the Trust get excess land in violation of the Agrarian Reforms Act, were also booked by the CBI.

The CBI FIR has followed a preliminary inquiry by the investigating agency in June 2020 following “source information” regarding the “encroachment of huge tract of public/ government/ forest land in Kathua district by unscrupulous elements in violation of J&K Agrarian Reforms Act 1976 and in connivance with revenue and forest officials”.

The CBI filed a charge sheet in the case in October 2021, alleging the involvement of accused revenue officials in criminal conspiracy with the RB Educational Trust through Kanta Andotra to allow it to retain land beyond the permissible ceiling of standard 100 kanal (12.5 acre).

To enable the RB Educational Trust to retain land beyond 100 kanals, the revenue officials allegedly showed 74.02 kanals (9.25 acres) as orchard and another 32 kanal (4 acres) was “gha charai” (grazing land), which did not come under the ceiling fixed under Agrarian Reforms Act.

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