Pb minister's son appears before ED in funds raising case

Rana Inder Partap Singh, son of Punjab cabinet minister Rana Gurjit Singh, who had tendered his resignation, today appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in Jalandhar in connection with a case of alleged violations in raising funds abroad by one of his companies.
The ED, this month, had issued summons to Inder Partap Singh, who is MD of Rana Sugars Limited, for allegedly raising Rs 81 crore abroad by floating global depository receipts for one of the family-owned companies without the mandatory permission of the Reserve Bank of India.
"I have submitted the required information including company's balance sheet to the ED officials," Inder Pratap Singh said over phone today.

Inder Pratap Singh, who was grilled for about five hours, denied committing any wrongdoing and said that he would fully cooperate with the ED.
"We have also submitted information pertaining to the utilisation of money raised abroad in 2006," Inder Pratap Singh said, adding the money so raised was utilised in the sugar mill located in Uttar Pradesh.
To a question, he claimed that there was no requirement for the RBI permission for raising money through global depositary receipt (GDR) as it was done under automatic route.

Notably, Punjab Power and Irrigation Minister Rana Gurjit Singh had submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who was yet to act on it.

Rana Gurjit had yesterday said that he resigned on moral grounds as the opposition had been trying to corner the chief minister by making false allegations against him (Rana) and was demanding his resignation.
The opposition, particularly Leader of the Opposition and AAP MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, had been demanding Rana Gurjit Singh's resignation for his alleged involvement in sand mining auctions and ED summons to his son.
"The opposition again made a hue and cry that the ED has issued summons. They issued such notices several times and the reply will again be given this time also," the minister had said yesterday, denying any violation of any norm.

Rana Gurjit Singh, whose family has business interests in sugar, power and distillery, had also said that he had not been handling family businesses since 2000.