ED arrests Punjab AAP MLA in money laundering case

In Punjab, the Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested AAP MLA  Jaswant Singh Gajjan Majra in connection with a Rs 40 crore bank fraud case, hours after he was picked up by the probe agency officials from a public meeting.The AAP MLA was summoned by the probe agency at least thrice but he skipped all the  summons.The AAP has hit out at the BJP for a "plot to defame us". "He was facing problem before joining AAP. It is BJP's plot to defame us... the way he was picked by ED, during a public meeting, shows BJP's tactics of defaming and coercing AAP," party spokesperson Malwinder Kang said. ED sources said that Gajjanmajra was taken into custody as had evaded four summons for questioning in the case.The Jalandhar ED team took Gajjanmajra into custody when he was addressing an AAP workers’ meeting at Amargarh in Malerkotla district in the morning.
The ED had registered the PMLA case against him after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had searched his properties in connection with a Rs 40.92-crore bank fraud case last year. A sum of Rs 16.57 lakh, 88 foreign currency notes and incriminating documents were recovered during the searches, the CBI had said. Gajjanmajra is among seven people and companies named as accused in the bank fraud case.
Balwant Singh, Kulwant Singh, Tejinder Singh, M/s Tara Health Foods Ltd through its directors, M/s Tara Corporation Ltd (renamed as Malaudh Agro Ltd), and public servants/private persons are among the accused.The CBI probe was conducted after a Bank of India branch in Ludhiana complained against Gajjanmajra’s firm in Gaunspura, Malerkotla. The firm, which was engaged in trading of foodgrains, was sanctioned loans by the bank at four intervals from 2011-14.