ED searches premises linked to Himachal Congress leaders R S Bali, Rajesh Sharma in fake Ayushman Bharat card scam

Led by DSP Maninder Singh, the SIT returned on Wednesday without searching the firm office and would submit a report about the incident — detailing “how the SHO of the Rajendra Park police station in Gurugram obstructed the search operation” — to the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Shimla.

“When SIT members went to the Rajendra Park police station to inform them about their intent to search the aviation company’s office, the SHO initially cooperated and provided a constable accompanying the team. However, as the team was about to start searching the premises, the SHO arrived at the scene and obstructed the operation. Later, the SIT members were taken to the Rajendra Park police station and were reportedly made to sit for around four hours. We have recorded everything that happened there. The recording, along with other material, will be produced before the CJM court here,” a top officer of Shimla police said.

Confirming the incident to The Indian Express, Shimla SP Sanjeev Gandhi said, “The SIT had a search warrant issued by the honourable CJM court. We will file a detailed report on the sequence of events in Gurgaon in the court here. The investigation will continue.”

“The CJM court issued the search warrants, which were obtained to ascertain the names of persons who had booked the chopper for the nine MLAs and paid for the service. Before commencing the search at the aviation company’s office, the company’s owner was asked to furnish the required information, but he declined,” another police officer said.

The SHO of the Rajendra Park police station in Gurgaon was unavailable for comment despite repeated phone calls.

When contacted, Gurgaon City ACP Surender Singh said he was “unaware of the incident”.

However, a Gurgaon police spokesperson confirmed that a team of the Himachal Pradesh Police had visited Gurgaon and the district police “cooperated with them”.

A Gurgaon police officer on the condition of anonymity said, “The search operation was underway when the company refused to share their record with the Himachal Police team and an argument ensued. Gurgaon police intervened and favoured the company’s stance.”

On March 10, Congress MLAs Sanjay Awasthi and Bhuvaneshwar Gaur lodged an FIR at the Baluganj police station, alleging a conspiracy involving several crores of rupees to topple the elected state government of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. The FIR was registered against then Independent MLA from Hamirpur Ashish Sharma and Rajesh Sharma, the father of the Congress MLA Chaitanya Sharma who along with five other MLAs had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections in February.

The nine MLAs who availed the chopper service were Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Devinder Singh Bhutto and Inderdutt Lakhanpal of the Congress and Independent MLAs Hoshyar Singh Chambyal, Ashish Sharma and KL Thakur.

Meanwhile, only three — Sudhir Sharma (Dharamshala), Inderdutt Lakhanpal (Badsar) and Ashish Sharma (Hamirpur) — managed to win Assembly bypolls held in June and July.

— With ENS, Gurgaon