New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Thursday searched around a dozen locations in Chandigarh and Mohali, including the premises of an alleged associate of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s Officer on Special Duty (OSD), in connection with a money laundering case linked to allegedly fraudulent land deals.
Agency sources identified the suspects as Nitin Gohal and Pritpal Singh Dhindsa—close associates of Mann’s OSD, Rajbir Singh Ghuman, who allegedly also interfered with the functioning of the government.
Sources further said that the suspects attempted to dissipate cash present at the premises during the searches by throwing the bag full of cash from the balcony.
“Right around the start of the search proceedings, a cash amounting to Rs 21 lakh was thrown from the balcony from under the balcony net, which got scattered on the road below. The cash was handed over to the office of the residential society by the bystanders and was later recovered by the officials carrying out the search,” an ED official said.
Additionally, sources said the searches also covered one Dhir Constructions, which had acquired assets from Altus Space Builders in the name of Suncity Projects at a grossly undervalued price to recoup proceeds of crime.
“Gaurav Dhir of Dhir Constructions, through its entity Suncity Projects, purchased the project from Altus Space Builders Pvt Ltd for a paltry sum of Rs 130 crores, by undervaluing the project by more than 170 crores,” an ED official said, also identifying Dhir as one of the close associates of Punjab cabinet minister and one of the most influential ruling party leaders, Aman Arora.
Responding to questions about the ED searches on Thursday, CM Mann denied any connection to the individuals who faced action by the central agency.
Arora in a post on X, wrote Thursday evening, “I have come to know from media reports that my name has figured in ED’s raids today. My entire life was, is & will always be above board. Not going to be bowed down by such false propagandas.”
Sources added that Gohal was using his connections in the government to provide “liaisoning and political support to defaulters” to builders who defaulted on payments to the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).
Agency officials also conducted searches at premises in Chandigarh and Mohali linked to the Suntec City real estate project, including Ajay Sehgal, the secretary of the Indian Cooperative Housing Building Society, in Mullanpur, as well as real estate companies such as ABS Townships, Altus Builders, Dhir Constructions, and their associates, allegedly involved in large-scale fraud in obtaining Change of Land Use (CLU) licences from GMADA and cheating the public to collect hundreds of crores, the sources said.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia claimed in a post on X that “bags” of money were thrown from the apartment during the agency’s raids.
Major Breaking
👉 Crores of Money, 500 notes flying in Air. Money Belongs to whom— OSD CM Mann Rajbir' Singh
👉 "Kattar Fraudsters" in ED trap
👉ED raids on CM Bhagwant Mann’s close aide OSD Rajbir' Ghumman's close aides and relatives Nitin, Veer davinder.
👉ED raids Mohali… pic.twitter.com/iZGBa5iixO
— Bikram Singh Majithia (@bsmajithia) May 7, 2026
AAP Punjab spokesperson Baltej Pannu denied any links or association between Gohal and Mann’s OSD. However, he refused to comment on the raids.
The agency’s money laundering probe stems from a case filed by the Punjab Police, following an inquiry into alleged forgery and the use of the land owners’ bogus signatures by office bearers of a real estate promoter, the Indian Cooperative Housing Building Society in Mullanpur, to obtain CLU licenses from GMADA for development and commercial purposes.
CLU licenses are required for the conversion of agricultural land for industrial, commercial, or residential purposes, particularly outside municipal limits.
The Punjab Police probe began after the Punjab and Haryana High Court asked the Punjab DGP and the Bureau of Investigation to file a report on complaints submitted by landowners alleging fraud worth Rs 2,500 crore through the fraudulent acquisition of land parcels for real estate development.
Agency sources indicated that through this fraudulent means, the Indian Cooperative Housing Building Society, led by one Suresh Kumar Bajaj and Ajay Sehgal, collected over Rs 150 crore by admitting members to the society without executing any sale deed.
Sources added that examination of documents revealed that Sehgal developed multi-storey residential and commercial complexes, named La Canela residential complex and District 7 commercial complex, on fraudulently acquired CLU from the GMADA.
When the matter was pending in court, the Punjab Police conducted inquiries based on complaints filed by the landowners before the SAS Nagar SSP and found that the signatures of at least 14 landowners were forged. Based on the forged documents, consent letters were prepared in the names of the landowners in 2014.
The Punjab Police arrested Ajay Sehgal in 2022 after registering an FIR under sections related to forgery and cheating. Sehgal’s premises were also searched by the ED on Thursday.
GMADA had passed the Suntec City proposal on a 108-acre land parcel, which was subsequently approved by the state’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority in 2018.
However, GMADA revoked the promoter’s license to develop the land for real estate in July 2024, in the wake of criminal cases and complaints of forgery by the project’s promoters. The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) also revoked its approval for the project in 2024.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)