PMLA case: Charges framed against ex-forest minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot
A special court in Mohali framed charges against Congress leader and former state forest minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot in connection with a PMLA case on Wednesday.
The court of Ajit Atri said that “prima facie offence under Section 3, punishable under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, was made out against the accused and he is ordered to be charged for the offence”.
This means that Dharamsot, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 15 last year from Jalandhar, will now face trial. The ED had alleged that Dharamsot diverted funds worth crores during his tenure as forest minister during Congress regime from 2017 to 2022.
Dharamsot, who held the forest department portfolio in the then Amarinder Singh-led cabinet, was the first former minister to be arrested during the tenure of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, for allegedly taking kickbacks to issue permits to cut trees, transfer officials, make purchases and issue no-objection certificates to various entities/persons for opening of petrol pumps and hotels.
ED’s special public prosecutor Jagjit Singh Sarao averred that property worth ₹6.83 crore was generated using proceeds of the crime as the accused never explained the sources of funds.
APS Deol, senior advocate for the accused, assisted by advocate Arun Kaundal, submitted that the cognisance in the scheduled offence case was yet to be taken so charges under PMLA can’t be framed.
The ED had stated that its investigation found that Dharamsot misused his official position and received bribes from various officers and private persons during his tenure as Punjab forest minister. “Dharamsot allegedly got ₹10-20 lakh as bribe for transfer of divisional forest officer, ₹5-8 lakh for ranger, ₹5 lakh for block officer and ₹2-3 lakh for forest guard through his OSD. Dharamsot collected ₹1 crore for issuance of permits for cutting khair trees through his OSD Kamaljit Singh,” said an ED official privy to the investigation.
Earlier, the Congress leader remained in jail till September 6, 2022, before securing a bail. Over a dozen officials and bureaucrats were also booked in the case. On February 7, 2023, the VB again arrested him for “amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income”. He was out on bail in both the cases. Eventually, the ED arrested him in a money laundering case last year. Since then, he has been in Nabha jail.
