Former CM and Congress leader Charanjit Channi has been interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
As per the officials, Mr. Channi was questioned for over six hours by the ED in a money-laundering investigation linked to an alleged sand mining case on Wednesday at the Enforcement Directorate’s zonal office in Jalandhar.
Before the assembly elections in February, former CM Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey was arrested in the case, and a charge sheet was filed against him and the others named in that case early this month.
Mr. Channi who had earlier skipped a few summons, has been questioned by the ED about his links with Bhupinder Singh Honey. The former CM has been interrogated about Honey’s visit to the CM office when Mr. Channi was the Chief Minister of Punjab. Apart from this, he has also been questioned about several transfers and postings made during the last days of his CMship.
The ED action in the case began on January 18 after it conducted raids against Mr. Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey & others, and seized about Rs 7.9 crore in cash from his premises and about Rs 2 crore in cash from a linked person identified as Sandeep Kumar.
Since then, the opposition be it the AAP leaders including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, then MP and current CM Bhawant Mann, or Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal and even the former Congress leader and Ex-CM Capt Amarinder Singh were continuously questioning the then CM Charanjit Singh Channi through several social media esp Twitter, and the other news platforms.
After the Congress party has lost the elections, shrinking down from 77 to just 18 seats and their CM face Charanjit Channi lost from both Chamkaur Sahib and Badhaur assemblies, and Ex-PPCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu lost from Amritsar East, the infighting amongst the state Congress leaders has been at the peak.
Now the ED’s interrogation has caused trouble amongst the Congress leadership as the infighting amongst the Congress leaders in Punjab may increase, and the political opponents will once again target the Congress party and its erstwhile government over this controversy.
