Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira got financial benefits from drug traffickers: ED charge sheet

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a charge sheet against Punjab Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira for allegedly laundering money in the 2017 Fazilka drug smuggling racket , people familiar with the development said.The kingpin of Fazilka drug racket, Gurdev Singh, has also been named as accused in the ED charge sheet, filed in the first week of January under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).ED has found that Khaira made substantial cash deposits in his and his family members’ bank accounts over the years, which he could not satisfactorily explain during interrogation. The charge sheet states that between 2014 and 2020, Khaira spent over ₹6.5 crore on himself and family members. His income during this period was less than ₹3 crore, but expenses were in excess of ₹3.5 crore, said an official, requesting anonymity.Investigators at the agency who didn’t want to be named said they have provided substantial evidence to establish that the former legislator was involved with drug traffickers and received financial benefits from them.Khaira, 56, was arrested by the central anti-money laundering agency on November 11 for his links with drug smugglers and forgers making fake passports. At the time of arrest, Khaira denied any wrongdoing and said he was being targeted by central agencies as he has been vocal against the Centre’s three new farm laws (since repealed). “It is political vendetta. Nothing else,” said Khaira to media while being taken away by ED on November 11, 2021.Khaira won the assembly election in 2017 from Bholath in Kapurthala district (Punjab) on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket. However, in January 2019, he quit the party and formed Punjab Ekta Party (PEP), which he merged with the Congress in June 2021.He came under ED’s scanner in January 2021 in two matters -- the first pertaining to a cross-border drugs smuggling network unearthed in Fazilka, Punjab in 2015, in which 1.8 kg of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, two weapons, 26 live cartridges and two Pakistani SIM cards were seized by Jalalabad police (Punjab); and the second to a fake passport racket being run in Delhi.Nine smugglers were sentenced in the Fazilka drugs smuggling case in October 2017 including Gurdev Singh, Manjit Singh, Harbans Singh and Subhash Chander.According to a senior ED officer who didn’t want to be named, Khaira was particularly very close to Gurdev Singh, the leader of Fazilka drugs smuggling racket and used to often shelter him.The politician’s name cropped up in the case in 2017 as well. Although he was not named in the Punjab police charge sheet, a Fazilka court issued summons to him on November 30, 2017. However, the Supreme Court granted him relief by quashing the proceedings against him. At that time, he was Punjab’s Leader of opposition and an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA.The main allegation against him is that he was supporting the gang of international smugglers and enjoying the proceeds of crime.Last year, the central agency questionned AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta and former party leader Kumar Vishwas as well in connection with foreign funds raised by the party in 2016 in the run up to Punjab assembly elections. Khaira travelled to the US in 2016 to raise funds for AAP from the non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the run-up to Punjab state assembly elections.

Hindustan Times

21-01-2022

India