The special PMLA court in Jalandhar Wednesday framed charges against former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh alias Honey and his accomplice Kudratdeep Singh in a case of illegal sand mining. Judge Rupinderjit Chahal framed charges against both the accused under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Notably, Channi was also summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the investigation of this case in April. The ED had filed the charge sheet against both the accused on March 31 under Sections 3 (offence of money laundering), 4 (punishment for money laundering), 44 (offence triable by special courts), and 45 (offences to be cognizable and non-bailable) of the PMLA, 2002, following the arrest of Honey. The investigating agency contended that the accused engaged in excess mining beyond the permissible limit at the mining site allotted to them during the e-auction conducted by the previous Punjab government. Kudratdeep participated in an e-auction conducted by the Punjab mining department in May 2017 and successfully bid as an H1 bidder for the Malikpur mining site, SBS Nagar for an amount of Rs 4 crore per annum. The ED said mining activities were carried out at the Malikpur mining site using Poclain machines and other machinery that violated conditions set by the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority. It further contended that Kudratdeep Singh alias Lovie recorded his statement under Section 50 of the PMLA stating that all the sale proceeds at the Malikpur mining site were received in cash and the leftover cash after bearing expenses was kept by him, so he was in possession of proceeds of crime generated from illegal sand mining activities at the Malikpur mine. The ED said the quantity of sand output declared by Kudratdeep in Form-N for November 1 to 15, 2017, was 827.5 MT, whereas as per 73 weighment slips dated November 10, 2017, the quantity of sand output was 902.7 MT within a few hours of the given day. The investigating agency, therefore, claimed that excess sand was being mined by Kudratdeep but the same was not reported. Kudratdeep was also allegedly found involved in money laundering. The ED had registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) on November 30, 2021, in which Kudratdeep Singh was made accused number 1 and Honey accused number 2. The ECIR was registered following an illegal mining case registered by Nawanshahr police in 2018, in which Kudratdeep Singh was initially an accused but his name was later cleared through a police inquiry. During the investigation, the ED discovered the alleged role of Honey Singh in illegal sand mining and conducted raids on January 18, 2022, seizing nearly Rs 10 crore and other valuables from the premises of Honey. Honey and Kudratdeep formed a company by the name of Providers Overseas Consultants Private Ltd. on 25.10.2018. The financial records of Providers Overseas Consultants for the year 2019-20, as accessed by indianexpress.com, show its total revenue from operations to be around Rs 18.38 lakh with a loss of Rs 4.74 lakh after meeting expenses. The firm has three directors – Kudratdeep Singh, Bhupinder Singh, and Sandeep Singh. Honey was summoned to the ED’s Jalandhar office on February 3. He was questioned extensively till late in the night and then arrested at 11:55 pm. The ED had earlier said that Honey had told them that the money seized belonged to him and that he used to take bribes from officials in lieu of giving them their choice of transfers and postings. The agency had also informed the Court that digital devices, including mobile phones, seized from Honey contain around 18 lakh pages of data.
