DEHRADUN: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against eight accused, including prime accused PCS officer Dinesh Pratap Singh in the Uttarakhand NH-74 scam. The Special ED Court has scheduled the next hearing in the case for November 13. According to official sources, the accused include farmers from Punjab, whose properties worth crores have already been attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Significantly, the NH 74 scam surfaced in March 2017, prompting then-ADM Pratap Shah to file a case against NHAI officials, employees, and seven then-SDMs, Tehsildars, and staff from Udham Singh Nagar’s Sidcul police station. The then Triwendra government constituted an SIT to probe the matter.In a surprising move, the state government had recently given a clean chit to DP Singh, one of the main accused, and dropped disciplinary proceedings against him without any penalties. Moreover, the earlier sanction for prosecution against him was also withdrawn. According to police sources, the scandal led to the suspension of two IAS and five PCS officers. Over 30 officials, employees, middlemen, and farmers were jailed in connection with the scam. PCS officer Dinesh Pratap Singh was named the prime accused in the case. A massive scam worth over ₹400 crore was unearthed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the NH 74 case. PCS officer Dinesh Pratap Singh, along with several other officials and farmers, was named in the chargesheet filed by the SIT in 2019. According to the official sources, Singh spent nearly 14 months behind bars in connection with the scam. Following the SIT probe, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also swung into action, attaching properties worth crores belonging to the accused officials and farmers during its investigation.After a three-year investigation, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against eight accused, including PCS officer Dinesh Pratap Singh and farmers Jishan Ahmed, Sudhir Chawla, Ajmer Singh, Gurvail Singh, Sukhwant Singh, Sukhdev Singh, and Satnam Singh, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
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