Khaira submits complaint against Majithia to ED
Friday, 25/07/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140725/punjab.htm#10
Jalandhar : Sukhpal Khaira, PPCC spokesman, has submitted a complaint to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Jalandhar, against Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Majithia for allegedly having received hawala money to the tune of Rs 70 lakh from money-launderer Gurmeet Manchanda, an accomplice of “drug lord” Jagdish Bhola, presently lodged with him at Nabha jail.
Later, addressing a press conference, Khaira claimed, “As per the details provided to me by a very senior officer working in the financial investigation unit (FIU) of the Punjab Police, Majithia had received Rs 70 lakh from Rohit Goyal, alias Pinky, a courier of Gurmeet Manchanda in Chandigarh on April 18, 2011. The FIU, while intercepting mobile number of Pinky, traced the delivery of Rs 70 lakh to Majithia at his mobile number.”
The Congress leader said though the FIU should have arrested Pinky and investigated the matter, the top brass of the FIU “succumbed to political pressure” and made no further investigations, nor did they inform the ED. “If the FIU had investigated it, there is not any iota of doubt that the transaction would have been exposed as part of the drug/hawala money received by the minister from Manchanda,” he added.
Khaira said the “receipt” brought to the fore grave Foreign Exchange Management Act violations, which needed to be investigated to unearth a larger money-laundering nexus.
