NEW DELHI: A company linked to AAP MP from Punjab Sanjeev Arora and some other entities caused “loss” to the state government and generated “huge” proceeds of crime by misusing industrial lands for residential projects, the ED alleged Wednesday.The federal agency had raided the premises of Arora, also a businessman, that of a company promoted by him — Hampton Sky Reality (erstwhile Ritesh Properties Industries Limited or RPIL) — and others like Hemant Sood and Chander Shekhar Aggarwal on October 7 in Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Delhi and Gurugram.It also raided another company named Royal Industries Ltd (RIL) and its directors, Gurmeet Singh and Pardeep Kumar Aggarwal, on the same day.The federal agency said in a statement that it seized “incriminating” documents, mobile phones and digital devices during these searches.Arora, on the day the raids took place, had said he was a “law-abiding” citizen, and he was not sure about the reason for which the searches were conducted. “I will cooperate fully with agencies and make sure all their queries are answered,” he had posted on X.Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convener and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had said the ED action was a “politically motivated attack by the Modi government.”The money laundering case stems from a criminal complaint filed in a Ludhiana court, under various sections of the IPC, against RPIL and an FIR registered by Ludhiana Police against RIL.The ED claimed its probe found that RPIL and RIL were allotted industrial lands by the Punjab government with an objective to promote industries in the state on certain conditions.”RIL sold the allotted industrial land wrongfully by breaching the conditions of allotment. RPIL alienated the land use without permission of Punjab government and later on developed residential project and business park on the said land by concealing material facts at the time of seeking permission from Punjab government for the project. By all these wrongful activities, RPIL and RIL caused loss to the Punjab government and generated huge proceeds of crime,” it claimed.
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