Chandigarh, Aug 13 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate’s Jalandhar Zonal Office has conducted search operations in Chandigarh and Punjab’s Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Ludhiana, along with a survey at the office of Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) in connection with a money laundering investigation into allotment of industrial plots in the name of their relatives, friends and other associates.
Various incriminating documents and digital devices were recovered and seized during search proceedings from several premises.
The ED initiated an investigation on the basis of the first information report (FIR) registered by the Vigilance Bureau under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against several PSIEC officials and other private people.
The investigation revealed that the industrial plots were allotted to people having no knowledge of technical industries.
Fake firms and fake addresses were used by private people in the application form while applying for the industrial plots, and through close connections with the PSIEC officials, industrial plots were allotted to these persons.
The possession of the plots was also not provided within the stipulated time and used to be delayed for many years, and the intermediate period used to be considered as a zero period and allotment dates used to be shifted forward by many years for payment plans with zero interest rates for the intermediate period.
Enquiries have revealed that the illegal allotments were made in lieu of huge bribes, received directly or indirectly by the officials through cash transactions and layered financial arrangements.
Several allotments were made in the names of shell entities and fictitious firms, which were subsequently used to sell the allotted plots at prevailing market rates to third-party outsiders, thereby generating substantial proceeds.
Further, it was revealed that plots allotted for establishing industries were bifurcated and diverted for residential and commercial plotting. Various incriminating evidence was gathered, and unaccounted cash valuing Rs 12,15,000 was recovered and seized, along with freezing of Rs 4.01 crore in bank accounts of PSIEC officials — Surinder Pal Singh, a former Chief General Manager, and Jaswinder Singh Randhawa, a former General Manager — during the search.
–IANS
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