ED raids AAP minister’s aide in Punjab border mining case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has carried out searches at 17 premises, including that of an alleged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) functionary in Punjab’s Pathankot district, in a money laundering probe into the illegal sand mining close to the international border with Pakistan, ThePrint has learnt.

The searches were carried out Thursday and Friday at mining firms and stone crushers in and around the Pathankot border district, as well as residential premises in Pathankot, Amritsar, and Gurdaspur linked to alleged AAP functionary Vijay Kataruchak.

The ED’s probe stems from a case filed by the state’s Vigilance Bureau in2023 against retired assistant development commissioner (village development) Kuldeep Singh in Pathankot. He was booked by the state’s anti-corruption agency on charges of passing an order granting approximately 92 acres of panchayat land, located a few kilometres from the international border, to seven women days before his retirement.

Sources in the agency said that the mining activities continued unabated in the area despite the Punjab and Haryana High Court banning such activities in the region in August 2022.

The latest wave of the central agency’s raids in the state, including searches in the Kataruchak village of AAP MLA Lal Chand Kataruchak, who represents the Bhoa constituency in the state assembly, provided the Opposition fresh ammunition to target the AAP government. Kataruchak also holds the Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Forest and Wildlife Preservation portfolios in the Bhagwant Mann-led cabinet.

During the inquiry in 2023, it was found that Kataruchak, the minister, had recommended Kuldeep Singh for the post of ADC to his cabinet colleague, Kuldeep Singh Daliwal, through a demi-official letter. According to reports from that time, Singh was handed the additional charge on 24 February that year—four days before his retirement.

‘Fraudulent transfer a day before retirement’

According to case records, the Finance Commissioner, Village Development and Panchayat, created a committee of two inquiry officers, which found that Singh had passed the order in favour of the seven women despite the land falling under the purview of the Punjab Village Common Land Regulation Act 1961, in other words, common land that could not be used for individual purposes.

In the inquiry, the committee had found that the women—Veena Parmar, Balwinder Kaur, Manjit Kaur, Bharti Banta, Inderdeep Kaur, Som Raj, Parveen Kumari and Tarsem Rani—moved their file before the district revenue department in December 2022 seeking ownership of the common land.

However, their plea was approved only when Singh took charge as development commissioner in the district, and passed 27 February.

Based on the inquiry report, the Special Secretary of Development and the Panchayat Officer of the government approached the Vigilance Bureau seeking a case against Singh and the beneficiaries of the fraudulent land allotment.

The village of Gol (where the 92 acres were allotted) is located in the lower basin of the Ravi River, along the border with Pakistan, and has been a hotbed of illegal mining over the years, despite a stern order from the high court.

ThePrint reached out to Baltej Pannu, AAP spokesperson, for comment. He said he would respond after checking if Vijay Kataruchak was indeed close to AAP minister Lal Chand Kataruchak, as the Opposition has alleged.

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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