Drug racket: Former Punjab minister, son named in charge sheet

Former Punjab minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur and his son Damanvir Singh are among 12 people named in an ED charge sheet -- the sixth so far -- filed in the Jagdish Bhola drug racket and money laundering case in a CBI court here.
Former chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) Avinash Chander has also been named in the 211-page charge sheet filed yesterday by the Enforcement Directorate's special public prosecutor Jagjit Singh Sarao.
Sarao was accompanied in court by the agency's deputy director, Naranjan Singh, who headed the probe in the case.
Bhola, a former DSP in Punjab police and an Arjuna awardee, was booked as co-accused in the case in January 2014, a day after he had accused the then state revenue minister, Bikram Singh Majithia, of patronising the drug mafia.

Both Phillaur and Chander were minister and CPS, respectively, in the previous SAD-BJP government.
They were dropped and denied tickets for the 2017 Assembly elections after their names cropped up in the infamous drug and money laundering racket.

Phillaur had, however, joined the Congress in the run-up to the assembly polls.
Besides the three, the other accused are Jagdish Singh Chahal, Paramjit Singh Chahal, Inderjit Kaur, Davinder Kant Sharma, Jaswinder Singh, Sachin Sardana, Sushil Kumar Sardana, Kailash Sardana and Rashmi Sardana.
Sarao said the ED had earlier filed a charge sheet against the prime accused, Jagdish Singh Bhola, and four supplementary charge sheets against others involved in the case.

He claimed that the accused had purchased properties from the proceeds of the drug racket.
"The ED had in 2013 registered an FIR against Bhola and others in this connection," said Sarao.
The charge sheet states that Chander took Rs 45 lakh from Chunni Lal Gabba, another accused named in a supplementary charge sheet filed in the case, he said.
Gabba and Phillaur's wife jointly owned a cold store. Bhola made a payment of Rs 1.07 crore to purchase three acres of land in the name of Jaswinder Singh, another accused in the case, the charge sheet said.
The court would next hear the case on July 25.