ED arrests Punjab Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested former Punjab MLA and Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in a money laundering case, agency sources said.

Officers familiar with the matter confirmedthat Khaira was arrested by the Delhi team of the ED after it collected enough evidence against the leader in connection with the case.

Khaira is under investigation for money laundering in at least two cases.

It is alleged that Khaira, who is in the Congress now, visited the United States in 2016, when he was with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and raised funds totalling an amount of USD 119,000 from the non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the run-up to Punjab state assembly elections.

ED recovered the documents pertaining to this funding during a raid in March this year, and when he was questioned about it, he disclosed entire fund-raising trip was organized by the AAP, and that he had no knowledge of the funding, officer added.

Khaira was elected to the state assembly in 2017 from Bholath in Kapurthala district on an AAP ticket.

Two years ago, he quit the AAP and formed the Punjab Ekta Party (PEP), which he merged with the Congress in June this year.

In September this year, the ED recorded the statement of AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta in connection with alleged foreign funds raised by the party in the run-up to 2017 Punjab assembly elections -- a move that the AAP described as a political vendetta at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

( With inputs from ANI )