A Gurugram court on Sunday ordered Punjab Industries Minister Sanjeev Arora to be remanded in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate for a week in connection with a money laundering case linked to the multi-crore GST scam.
The order was approved by the District and Sessions Judge Narender Sora passed the order in a marathon midnight hearing after the ED arrested the Aam Aadmi Party minister from his official residence in Sector 2 in Chandigarh on Saturday.
The arrest came after the ED registered an ECIR warrant against Arora and three others in Gurugram on May 5 for their alleged involvement in money laundering. $157.2 crore by showing export of mobile phones from May 2023 to October 2023 via a real estate company based in Udyog Vihar to foreign countries only on documents to enable internal remittance in India through banking channel to show it as a legitimate source of income.
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In its Enforcement Information Report (ECIR), the ED also alleged that several shell companies were used to show exports of at least 44,000 mobile phones mostly iPhones during the period when Arora was the chief managing director of the company.
Most of these companies, which allegedly supply phones to Arora, have either never filed income tax returns, have little income or are pending or registered for GST, Ed said.
The agency claimed that $Rs 157.2 lakh crore of exports, worth merchandise $Rs 102.5 crore was exported to two UAE-based companies.
The ED registered an FIR against Arora and three others on charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy on April 18.
While appearing before the ED, lawyer Zoheb Hossain requested that the minister be interrogated for 10 days to uncover the proceeds of crime and identify other accomplices and beneficiaries.
They argued that Arora was the key person controlling the operation of the company called Hampton Sky Realty Limited.
Meanwhile, Arora’s lawyer Arjun Dewan has strongly opposed the remand request. “A false and frivolous case was prepared against Arora and no evidence was collected against him before his arrest,” he said. Diwan, who opposed custodial interrogation, also asserted that there was not enough material to prove the view that his detention was necessary.
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He said: “The directorate must first verify with customs the exported consignments, as all records are available to them.”
However, the court noted that the allegations against Arora were serious and that the ED had good reason for custodial interrogation to decipher the money trail, roles of the accused and the proceeds of crime. “The above objective can be achieved only when the applicant is given the opportunity to interrogate the accused in custody,” the court noted in its order.
