New Delhi [India], May 9 : The Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday hit out at the Centre over the Enforcement Directorate raid on Punjab Minister Sanjeev Arora's residence, calling it politically motivated.
AAP Punjab State President Aman Arora said the party had received information that ED teams had "again reached the residence of Sanjeev Arora" earlier in the day.
"I want to tell the BJP, ED, CBI and the Central govt that Punjab is a land of gurus and Bhagat Singh. I ask them to stop their actions," Aman Arora said in a video statement.
He alleged that central agencies were being misused against opposition leaders in the state. The ED has not yet issued an official statement on the reason for the search.
Sanjeev Arora is the power and industries minister in the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government.
Earlier in the day, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann also accused the BJP of misusing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches at the premises belonging to Punjab minister and MLA Sanjeev Arora again.
CM Mann said this was the third ED visit to Arora's house in one year and the second in the last month, but claimed that nothing had been found so far. He said Punjab would not bow to pressure or political tactics.
In a post on X, Punjab CM wrote, "Today, once again, the BJP's ED has come to Sanjeev Arora's house. In one year, this is the third time the BJP's ED has come to his house. And in the last one month, the second time. Yet, they haven't found anything. I want to tell Modi ji that Punjab is the land of the Gurus, which even Aurangzeb could not subdue."
This comes after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday carried out raids at multiple locations linked to Punjab Minister Sanjeev Arora in connection with an ongoing alleged Rs 100 crore money laundering probe.
The searches are being conducted at five premises across Delhi, Gurugram and Chandigarh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. Of these, four locations are allegedly associated with Arora and his entities, while one office premises belongs to Hampton Sky Realty Limited.
Officials said Arora, through his company, is allegedly accused of generating fraudulent purchase bills of mobile phones worth over Rs 100 crore from allegedly non-existent firms based in Delhi. These fake transactions were allegedly used to claim undue input tax credit (ITC), along with wrongful GST refunds on export credits and duty drawbacks.
The agency further suspects that the funds were allegedly routed through exports and subsequently allegedly round-tripped from Dubai to India to legitimise illicit gains, causing significant losses to the government exchequer.
The search operations, currently underway at four premises allegedly linked to Arora and his associates in Chandigarh and the Delhi-NCR region, including his official residence allegedly allotted as a minister.