New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested “absconding” former Haryana Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker from a 5-star hotel in Delhi following a brief scuffle, agency officials said Monday.
The 61-year-old ex-legislator was taken into custody from the ‘Grappa Bar’ of the Shangri-La hotel in central Delhi shortly after 9 pm on Sunday.
ED officials said an “intelligence input” was received by them around 8:30 pm on Sunday that Chhoker was present at the hotel bar along with some people.
Chhoker is a close aide of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the allotment of flats, houses, and plots by his real estate companies in Gurgaon. The former MLA and his firms allegedly amassed over Rs 616 crore from investors but failed to deliver the allotments.
Chhoker and his sons, Sikander and Vikas, are being investigated in the case. In March, the ED had issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and attached about three acres of agricultural land, 2,487 sq m of commercial plots, and eight residential flats located in Delhi, Faridabad, and Panipat in connection with the case. Fixed and bank deposits worth Rs 96 lakh were also attached as part of the same order.
Assets worth Rs 44.55 crore linked to Chhoker, his sons Vikas and Sikandar, and their company Sai Aaina Farms Pvt Ltd, were auctioned by the ED in March. While Vikas is absconding, Sikandar is out on bail in the case. In 2024, the agency had attached the family’s assets worth Rs 36 crore in connection with the same probe.
Dharam Singh Chhoker previously represented the Samalkha Assembly seat in Haryana’s Panipat district but lost the 2024 polls from the constituency.
