New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday raided 13 locations in Punjab’s Rupnagar district in connection with an illegal sand mining racket operating on land already attached in a decade-old drug case involving former boxer-turned-cop Jagdish Singh Bhola.
Sources in the agency said Rs 3 crore in unaccounted cash and some “incriminating material” had been found, also hinting at the possible involvement of mining don Nasib Chand and his company Ram Stone Crusher.
Incidentally, Chand’s company was accused by the Punjab Police last year of illegal mining in these areas, which also briefly landed him in jail.
On 17 October 2023, the state police filed an FIR against Ram Stone Crusher on the complaint of Nangal sub-divisional officer (SDO) Gurditpal Singh. Singh told cops that his office received a tip-off on illegal mining after which he sought a report from the revenue department and the Nangal tahsildar.
To his surprise, the tehsildar’s report highlighted the use of land already attached by the ED.
Though the FIR did not name him but only his company, Chand was arrested in November as part of the probe.
An officer privy to the probe told ThePrint: “Crushers of Chand’s company were operating illegally in the Bhallari village area under the Nangal police station and they extended their illegal mining process to a property earlier owned by Jagjit Singh Bhola and attached by ED in a drugs case. This was reported and an FIR was filed against him, leading to his arrest. He has been booked in seven to eight such cases of illegal mining.”
Chand is currently out on bail.
An ED officer said they had taken note of the 17 October FIR by the Punjab Police. “Chand has joined the investigation,” he told ThePrint.
The Bhola case
The high-profile drug case involved an international cartel and implicated several Punjab politicians and sports persons after Bhola allegedly confessed to their ties to his syndicate. The ED once estimated it to be worth Rs 6000 crore.
Jagdish Singh Bhola, a deputy superintendent of police, was first arrested in November 2023. The ED later took his custody and questioned him on charges of money laundering linked to the drug cases against him and his aides.
Bhola was convicted for 24 years in three drug cases by a special CBI court in Mohali.
Based on his statement to ED sleuths, the Punjab Police 2022 also booked Bikram Singh Majithia, a top leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal and brother-in-law of party president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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