New Delhi/Ludhiana: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches at the premises of Punjab industries minister Sanjeev Arora, his son, and some others as part of a foreign exchange violation probe linked to alleged insider trading in stock markets and round-tripping of betting funds from the UAE to India, officials said.
A total of 13 residential and official premises in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Gurugram and Chandigarh are being covered under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
This includes the residences and offices of Arora, his real estate company Hampton Sky Realty Ltd (formerly Ritesh Properties and Industries Ltd) and that of Arora’s son Kavya Arora (MD of the said realty company) in Ludhiana, the officials said.
In a post on X, he said, “ED has now raided Punjab Minister Sanjiv Arora. This is a clear pattern. This is how BJP starts its preperation for a state election.”
Responding to the ED raids at his premises, Arora stated that he would fully cooperate with the investigation.
In a post on X, he said, “An action by the Enforcement Directorate took place at my premises. As a responsible citizen, I will fully cooperate with the agencies, and I am confident that the truth will prevail.”
Sanjeev Arora is the promoter of the company M/s Hampton Sky Realty Ltd (formerly M/s Ritesh Properties and Industries Ltd), which is into large-scale real estate and infra projects in Punjab. His son, Kavya Arora, is presently the MD of the company and is also being searched.
Sanjeev Arora’s company is under scanner for multiple irregularities such as illegal change of land use in Punjab, booking fraudulent and over-inflated sales to inflate share prices, insider trading scams in the stock market, round-tripping of ill-gotten funds and illegal betting money from the UAE to India, and so on, ED said.
Hemanth Sood runs a financial investment and stockbroker company, M/s Findoc Finvest Private Limited in Ludhiana, Gurgaon and Gujarat GIFT city. He partnered with Sanjeev Arora and assisted him in the round-tripping of his ill-gotten funds from UAE and also in generating proceeds of crime from insider trading. Hemant Sood is also alleged to have assisted many more betting operators and hawala operators in laundering the crime money and round-tripping the same into India through the FPI route.
Chandra Sekahr Aggarwal, a Jalandhar-based businessman, originally started as a cricket bookie and later expanded his operations to hawala operations and started a bookie and betting platform by the name Khiladi Book and cheated thousands of poor people through betting platforms. His crime proceeds generated and parked in the UAE have also been brought back into India through Findoc and invested in real estate through Sanjeev Arora.
According to the ED, Sanjeev Arora is suspected to have been giving protection to the illegal betting operators in Punjab, through his political influence, to get a share of their profits and also using his companies and multiple entry operators to convert their unaccounted money into legitimate investments and thereby actively assisting in money laundering.
Sanjeev Arora’s companies are also under scanner for booking multiple fake export bills and roundtripping funds from UAE and also booking fake purchases from non-existent GST entities, the national investigation agency added.
