On Wednesday, the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Jalandhar filed charges in an alleged illegal mining case against Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh, alias Honey, and his sidekick Kudrat Deep Singh. The case was registered by special PMLA judge Rupinderjit Chahal in accordance with PMLA Articles 3 and 4.
The chargesheet against Bhupinder and Kudrat was filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 31 of this year. Bhupinder was taken into custody on February 3 in advance of the Punjab assembly polls and is currently free on bail. In April, the ED also questioned Channi in relation to the matter.
According to the chargesheet, the ED claimed that Kudrat received sand mining sites and that he and Bhupinder mined far more sand than was allowed, resulting in significant illegal gains. Additionally, the ED carried out searches in January of this year and found 10 crore rupees in cash. This amount is from the proceeds of the crime, according to the prosecution.
According to the department’s oral and written statements, Kudrat has also been involved in money laundering. He participated in an online auction held by the Punjabi mining directorate in May 2017 and won the ‘H1’ offer for the Malikpur mining site in Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar for a price of Rs. 4 crore annually.
According to the ED, mining activities at the Malikpur site were conducted using Poclain machines and other gear, which was against the established rules by the state environment impact assessment authority (SEIAA).
Kudrat admitted in his statement recorded under section 50 of the PMLA that he received all of the sales profits from Malikpur in cash and that he kept the leftover funds after paying his costs, according to the ED.
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