ED Summons PSPCL Officials in Minister Arora Case

New Delhi/Chandigarh, May 16 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate has summoned IAS officer and CMD of Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd. (PSPCL) Basant Garg, its Director (Commercial) Harsharan Kaur Trehan and two alleged associates of arrested Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora for questioning in a money laundering case, officials said on Saturday.

They said the two officers, apart from Hemant Sood, who runs a financial investment and stockbroker company named Findoc Finvest Private Ltd. in Ludhiana, and Jalandhar-based businessman and alleged bookie Chandra Shekhar Aggarwal, have been asked to depose before the central agency in Delhi beginning Monday (May 18).

Garg is a 2005 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer.

The summonses have been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

Arora, 62, was arrested by the ED on May 9 from his official residence in Chandigarh after raids were carried out against him in an alleged Rs 100 crore GST fraud case linked to the sale of mobile phones.

He was the minister for Power, Industry and Commerce. After his arrest, the Bhagwant Mann-led government had allocated his portfolios to other ministers.

Officials said the questioning of the PSPCL officers is related to an alleged case of return of bank guarantee worth about Rs 2 crore by the state power utility to a company purportedly linked to Arora.


The officials said more bureaucrats including some IAS and IPS officers are under the scanner of the agency in this case.

On Saturday, a court in Gurugram extended the minister's ED custody by two days. Arora was produced before the court by the agency after the completion of his seven-day remand.

During the first court appearance, Arora's lawyer had said that the ED case against his client was "false and frivolous" and "no prima facie evidence" was collected by the investigating officer before arresting him.

The agency sought his custody for five more days, saying it needed to investigate the routing of funds through shell companies, the alleged purchase of benami properties, and examine multiple individuals linked to the case, according to officials.

But the District and Sessions Judge extended the custody by two days, they said.

The AAP politician has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging his arrest by the ED.

Sood and Agarwal were searched by the ED as part of a foreign exchange "violation" case against them and the minister.