ED to send second notice to nephew of Punjab CM' in sand mining case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to send second summon to Bhupinder Singh Honey, the nephew of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, as he skipped the first summon on health issues.

Honey was earlier summoned by the ED to join the probe on January 23 in connection with the prevention of money laundering case pertaining to illegal sand mining in Punjab.

On January 18, the ED had conducted raids at ten different locations including Homeland Heights which is the residence of Honey. The ED continued raiding at different places for two days and recovered incriminating documents.

According to information, Honey informed the ED officials that he was Covid positive and was unable to join the probe.

On Monday, the ED officials recorded the statement of Kudrat Deep Singh, business partner of Honey.

An ED official said that they seized incriminating documents pertaining to illegal sand mining, property transactions, cell phones, gold worth above Rs 21 lakh and a watch worth Rs 12 lakh and Rs 10 crore cash during the raid.

A source said that the documents recovered by them have confirmed that Kudrat Deep Singh was running two firms and Bhuipender Singh Honey was joint director in them.

As per sources, the firms are basically shell companies but ED has found a lot of money transactions. One of the firms is Provider Overseas Consultancy Limited, it was incorporated in 2018 with 33.33 per cent equal shares.

The ED will now send second notice to Bhupinder Singh Honey in coming days. Meanwhile, it is recording the statement of other accused in the matter.

The ED case is on the basis of a two years old FIR of Punjab Police on which the central probe agency conducted raids at ten different locations including one belonging to Punjab Chief Minster Charanjit Channi's nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey.

Punjab Police had on March 7, 2018, lodged a case against more than ten accused.

Bhupinder Singh Honey was not named in the Punjab Police's FIR and Kudrat Deep Singh was given a clean chit in the matter.

The ED found that money was being laundered by the accused involved in the case and they started probing the matter.