ED raids houses of Punjab Excise Commissioner and main accused in guava orchard scam

While Dhiman’s wife, Jasmine Kaur, was alleged to be the beneficiary of the scam, it was stated that Roojam also invested in the orchard in the name of his family members. The ED had previously questioned and raided Roojam in connection with the Delhi excise scam, in which the ED has recently arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Only recently, BJP state chief Sunil Kumar Jakhar had complained to the Election Commission of India (ECI), seeking a probe into the Punjab excise policy.

The raids sent shockwaves in the government circles. However, no government official commented on why the raids were taking place.

The raids took place at a time when the AAP was preparing for a grand rally in Delhi on Sunday. Although the ED officials did not comment on the raid, the ED sleuths remained at Roojam’s house for many hours. An ED official said they had seized a set of torn documents from outside Roojam’s house. However, he was not willing to divulge the details of the documents.

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau unearthed an alleged Rs 137 crore scam last year and has arrested 33 accused so far. The alleged fraud, centered in Barakpur village, where the ED began the raids, involved a nexus between officials of the horticulture and revenue departments, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), and private individuals. It is alleged that in 2016-17, state government and GMADA officers had prior knowledge of the upcoming land acquisitions. They allegedly purchased land strategically and planted guava trees in large numbers to inflate the compensation amount. They allegedly manipulated records, claiming that the trees were planted in 2016 when, in reality, they were planted in 2018. This allowed them to extract crores in illegal compensation.

Bhupinder Singh allegedly received compensation by planting guava trees on agricultural land acquired by the GMADA for development purposes. He allegedly connived with horticulture department officials to fudge the records to get compensation. The ED team has sought the case records to trace the money trail.