Early Saturday morning, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested the Congress’s first-time MLA Surender Panwar, the legislator of Sonipat in Haryana, in a case of alleged money laundering and illegal mining in Haryana and Rajasthan. Panwar first contested the Assembly polls from Sonipat as an Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate in 2014. He finished a distant third by getting 24.04% of the votes. The election was won by Kavita Jain of the BJP, who had a 45.8% vote share. He switched over to Congress ahead of the 2019 Assembly polls and won as Congress nominee, defeating Jain. In July 2022, Panwar resigned from the Assembly over threatening calls that he and his family members allegedly received. It was only after Haryana Speaker Gian Chand Gupta assured him of adequate security and safety that Panwar withdrew his resignation after four days. “My son has been getting death threats, but since you have assured me that adequate security will be provided to us, I am withdrawing my resignation,” the MLA wrote in his letter to Gupta, withdrawing his resignation. Panwar first came under the ED’s radar in January, when his premises were raided. The central agency conducted searches for more than 40 hours. In parallel raids, INLD’s former MLA Dilbagh Singh’s premises were also searched. Both raids were conducted in connection with the ED’s ongoing investigation into the multiple FIRs registered by Haryana Police on illegal mining in Yamunanagar, Sonipat, and several other districts of Haryana. The ED at the time claimed it had seized Rs 5 crore in cash, foreign-made weapons, liquor, and “incriminating documents” from Dilbagh Singh’s residence. During the searches at Panwar’s residence, the ED claimed to have seized several “incriminating documents” indicating money laundering and allegedly illegal mining operations. Panwar who runs mining operations for sand, gravel, and stones in Haryana and Rajasthan has assets worth more than Rs 15 crore in his name and another Rs 5 crore in his wife’s name. According to the 55-year-old’s poll affidavit, he owns luxury vehicles, including a Mercedes Benz GLS and a Toyota Fortuner, a revolver, and a rifle, besides several movable and immovable assets worth crores of rupees. What is the case about? Between August and October of 2023, the mining departments of Haryana and Rajasthan found several illegal mining operations under the government’s e-Ravana website that had been set up to simplify the collection of royalties, taxes, and payments to prevent tax evasion in mining. The Haryana mining department then registered several FIRs in Yamunanagar, Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, and Sonipat districts about alleged illegal mining. Based on the complaints, more than three dozen FIRs were registered against stone crushers and people who allegedly claimed input tax credits illegally. The Haryana mining department initially conducted an inquiry, but considering the vast scale of the alleged illegal mining operations and the GST evasion, it recommended that a probe be conducted by a central agency. In the probe, as many as 89 companies were found blacklisted from mining and stone crushing. Companies were found to be manipulating the system to get e-Ravana permits, even for the off-season for mining.
