CHANDIGARH: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday arrested Sanjeev Arora, a senior minister in the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government, from his official residence in Chandigarh's Sector 2 after conducting extensive searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. While the ED has not yet issued an official statement on the arrest, opposition leaders claimed the action is linked to an alleged GST fraud and money laundering case.
The searches were conducted at four locations associated with Arora, marking the third ED raid on him within a year and the second in the last month. Earlier in April, the agency had searched premises linked to him in Chandigarh and the Delhi-NCR region, including his ministerial residence. In 2024, when Arora was serving as a Rajya Sabha MP, the ED had also raided him in connection with a money laundering investigation involving the alleged conversion of industrial land for residential projects.
Reacting strongly to the raids and arrest, Bhagwant Mann accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using central agencies for political purposes. In a post on X, Mann said this was the third ED raid on Arora within a year and claimed that despite repeated searches, "they haven't found anything." He further alleged that the BJP was misusing the ED to intimidate opposition leaders and asserted that Punjab would not bow to "Modi's tactics." (IANS)
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