Cash rains down Mohali high-rise during ED raid in realty fraud case

CHandigarh/AmritsarA high-stakes money laundering investigating into Punjab’s existent landed estate sphere took a spectacular turn on Thursday morning when occupants of a luxury high-rise in Mohali allegedly threw bags stuffed with cash from a ninth-floor window to evade Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials.The agency conducted simultaneous searches at 12 locations across Chandigarh, Mohali, and Patiala as part of a probe targeting prominent builders and facilitators accused of obtaining change of land use (CLU) licences through fraudulent means, cheating investors, and defaulting on hundreds of crores in government fees.Residents of Western Towers in Kharar witnessed chaos during their morning walk as two bags containing about ₹20 lakh in ₹500 denominations were flung from Flat 906. The flat is reportedly linked to an IT businessman currently under the ED scanner. While some bundles scattered across the society grounds, ED officials quickly secured the area and took possession of the cash.Sources indicate that the businessman is being probed for allegedly acting as a mediator between defaulting builders and influential political figures. Investigators believe he played a pivotal role in coordinating between developers and government officials to stall recovery proceedings and legal penalties.Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann was quick to distance himself from the case as raids also targeted an alleged associate of an OSD in the CM office.“We have no relation with these raids. The ED officials have come to raid the company of someone there... They (the ED) are doing their work,” Mann told reporters outside the Golden Temple.Mann said the investigation might be related to “old matters” or independent business dealings, asserting that the state government was not linked to the federal probe.According to officials, the ED raids are linked to a case involving the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).They said the ED investigation has revealed a multi-layered financial fraud where developers allegedly obtained change of land use certificates through misrepresentation and collusion with officials to bypass urban planning norms. Once these licences were secured, the firms launched infrastructure projects in Mohali district, particularly in New Chandigarh, to collect hundreds of crores from gullible investors, they added.Despite amassing these huge collections, the developers systematically defaulted on external development charges and licence fees owed to GMADA, resulting in losses to the state exchequer.The federal agency is now tracing the proceeds of crime to determine if these diverted funds were moved through middlemen to provide political cover for the defaulting firms.(With input by Surjit Singh in Amritsar)