Money laundering case: ED arrests dismissed cop Inderjeet Singh

In the application, the prosecution (ED) had mentioned about the investigation under PMLA revealing the material against the accused. The investigation agency had revealed that major credits in the bank account of Inderjit Singh were from salary, cheque clearance, Karan Singh Kahlon, etc., whereas the major debits are towards AIPL Ambuja Housing and Urban Infrastructure Limited towards KP Singh, Haveli Restaurant, etc. It had also been mentioned that there was no cash withdrawal from the salary account of Inderjit maintained with HDFC Bank during the period from January 19, 2011 to September 17, 2020.

The court observed that according to the ED, the accused was directly involved in the process and activities related with the proceeds of crime of acquisition, possession, concealment, use and projecting or claiming as untainted money/property as defined in Section 3 of PMLA. “Inderjit is guilty of money laundering under Section 3 of PMLA,” the ED said in its application.

The application further had stated that the accused was arrested and was also informed about his rights, but neither he signed the arrest memo, nor he disclosed as to whom the intimation of arrest is to be given.

As the accused had refused to sign the arrest memo, the panchnama had been prepared in the presence of two witnesses Vishal Mahajan and Yuvraj Kanojia, both being relationship manager of ICICI Bank.

Since no counsel represented him, he had been provided legal aid by Harpal Singh under Legal Aid Defense Counsel System (LADC).

The dismissed inspector had submitted that he is falsely implicated in the present case. He had claimed there was a threat to his life. The accused further had submitted that there were three false cases against him and in fact, in the fight among senior officials, he has been made a “scapegoat”.

After going through the application moved by the ED, the court observed: “perusal of the file shows that the reasons to believe against the accused have also been written down along with the other proceedings relating to alleged involvement of the accused in the scheduled offence”.

“It will not be appropriate to express any opinion on the merits of the case and the plea taken by the accused. From the contents of the application for ED custody of the arrestee, there are sufficient grounds to grant ED custody of the arrestee for one day,” the court ordered.

The suspended police personnel was arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of Punjab Police in June 2017 reportedly with 4-kg heroin and an AK-47 assault gun. The ED attached Inderjeet’s property worth around Rs 1.32 crore in June last year.