Jammu, 08-11-2023 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has secured a seven-day custody of former Jammu and Kashmir minister Lal Singh, who was apprehended in connection with a money laundering case. This development came on Wednesday, following his arrest by the agency, just a day after a special court denied his anticipatory bail request. Lal Singh, who serves as the chairman of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP), was taken into custody from a residence in the Chawadi area of Sainik Colony in Jammu.
The ED’s investigation revolves around a case concerning an educational trust associated with his wife, former legislator Kanta Andotra. Special public prosecutor Ashwani Khajuria reported that the arrested individual was presented before a special court. Instead of the 14-day custody sought by the ED, the court granted a seven-day remand. The judge acknowledged the accused’s complaint of physical discomfort and ordered a thorough medical examination, as stated in Khajuria’s account of the court order.
Subsequently, due to Singh’s discomfort, he was transferred to the Government Medical College (GMC) Hospital during the early hours of the day. After being discharged from the hospital around 3 pm, he was immediately taken to court. Singh, however, alleged that despite his visit to the hospital, he did not receive appropriate medical attention. He claimed that he was present in the hospital’s emergency ward but was not given proper medical care. Moreover, his admission file was not prepared, and several tests were not conducted. Singh voiced his concerns while being escorted to the court.
Outside the hospital, a crowd of his supporters had gathered, vociferously protesting against the BJP. They contended that their leader was being unjustly implicated in a groundless case in the run-up to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections next year. Singh, a two-time Member of Parliament (MP) and a three-time Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), switched his political allegiance from the Congress to the BJP in 2014. He had also served as a minister in the previous PDP-BJP government, which disintegrated in June 2018 after the national party withdrew from the alliance.
Several months before the government’s fall, Singh resigned from the BJP and founded the DSSP, following controversy over his participation in a rally supporting the accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January 2018. However, he defended his presence at the rally, stating that he was there to “defuse the situation.”
In the preceding month, the Enforcement Directorate had conducted searches in Jammu and its surrounding areas as part of its investigation into the money laundering allegations involving the educational trust run by Andotra and a former government official. This investigation focused on alleged irregularities in land acquisitions for the trust. The federal agency executed searches at approximately eight locations in Jammu, Kathua, and Punjab’s Pathankot on October 17, as part of the case against the RB Educational Trust, its chairperson, and Ravinder S, a former revenue official.
The roots of the money laundering case trace back to a charge sheet filed by the CBI in October 2021. This charge sheet alleged criminal collusion in the transfer of land between January 4 and January 7, 2011, without disclosing details regarding the breach of the ceiling limit of 100 standard kanals, as stipulated under Section 14 of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 1976. This action was perceived as providing an unjust monetary advantage to the trust. According to the CBI charge sheet, the trust acquired multiple parcels of land totaling about 329 kanals through three gift deeds executed on January 5 and January 7, 2011.
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