New Delhi: Listening to a plea towards Punjab Industries and Commerce Minister Sanjeev Arora’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a cash laundering case, the Punjab and Haryana Excessive Court docket on Tuesday requested him to be handled in the identical method as “two not too long ago defected Bharatiya Janata Celebration members”.
Searching for to quash the arrest and subsequent remand of Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP) ministers, Bali referred to the current orders handed by the identical courtroom within the Sandeep Pathak and Rajinder Gupta circumstances. Of the seven AAP legislators who not too long ago joined the BJP, Mr. Pathak and Mr. Gupta got interim safety by the Punjab Police final week in a case towards them.
Senior advocate Puneet Bali, showing for Mr. Arora in a division bench of Chief Justice Sheru Nag and Justice Sanjiv Berry, stated, “It is a case of political victimization… I wish to present that with the 2 orders handed by the Lords not too long ago, this courtroom has protected (the folks) from political vendettas. I would like equality.”
“It is an absolute political scheme. Two raids beneath the International Trade Administration Act (FEMA) had been carried out. One was towards Shri (Ashok) Mittal, who defected and joined the ruling get together. No arrests had been made (towards him),” Bari stated. argued that the company’s actions had been “arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional”, referring to former AAP chief Ashok Mittal, a Rajya Sabha nominee from Punjab who switched to the Bharatiya Janata Celebration in late April.
The petition filed beneath Article 226 of the Structure by advocates Vibhav Jain, Jasman Singh Gill and Viren Sibal additionally prays for a course to the police to supply a replica of the primary info report (FIR) that Arora claims is pending.
The ED is represented by advocate Lokesh Narang and the matter was posted on Might 14.
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background
Arora was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday throughout an ongoing investigation into suspected cash laundering price Rs 100 crore. Arora, a former Rajya Sabha MP, is at the moment in ED custody following a seven-day remand order handed by a particular courtroom in Gurgaon on Sunday.
The authorized battle stems from an investigation into M/s Hampton Sky Realty Restricted (HSRL), an organization that Mr. Arora led as chairman till he resigned following a public election.
ED sources had earlier informed ThePrint that the cash laundering case is an offshoot of the case towards Arora beneath FEMA and on this connection, FEMA had raided the minister’s residence in Ludhiana final month. The outcomes of the restoration revealed that Arora had bought pretend cellphones price greater than 100 million rupees by means of the corporate, and had been sending funds forwards and backwards from Dubai to India beneath the guise of export for unlawful cash laundering functions.
“In the course of the raids final month, incriminating particulars had been recovered together with a number of pretend Items and Providers Tax (GST) buy invoices. These invoices had been obtained from non-existent firms in Delhi to say pretend enter tax credit score, refund of GST export credit score and discount in customs obligation,” an ED official informed ThePrint.
Vendetta introduced by AAP Information
Instantly after Arora’s arrest, AAP strongly criticized the Bharatiya Janata Celebration-led central authorities, alleging that at any time when it feels that it’s dropping political floor in elections, the get together conspires to suppress the voice of opposition events by deploying investigative companies towards them. They claimed that the motion towards Sanjeev Arora was a part of a broader political revenge plot.
This “political motive” can also be talked about in Arora’s petition, which states: “…the grounds for arrest are additional illegal within the information because the predicate offenses referred to by the accused entities relate to the provisions of the International Trade Administration Act, 1999 (FEMA) and should not the identical premeditated offenses, i.e. they don’t fall inside the class of premeditated offenses required for prosecution beneath the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act, 2002.” (PMLA) Subsequently, PMLA within the absence of FEMA, which is a Scheduled Act. The arrest of the petitioner on the premise of is totally unlawful and opposite to established ideas of legislation and seems to be politically motivated as nicely. ”
In keeping with Mr. Arora’s assertion within the Excessive Court docket, the investigation timeline was quickly accelerated in April 2026, permits had been issued and in depth searches had been performed at Mr. Arora’s residence in Ludhiana, his son’s residence in Gurugram and the HSRL workplace premises.
On April 19, 2026, authorities handed a preliminary seizure order beneath FEMA, freezing Arora’s belongings for 180 days. On Might 5, 2026, the ED formally registered an Enforcement Case Data Report beneath the PMLA.
The petition’s central argument is that the arrest was predetermined. In keeping with the petition, the investigating officer perused Arora’s assertion at 3:25 pm and arrested him by 4 pm on Might 8.
The petition alleges that it’s “bodily unimaginable” for officers to kind a real “motive to consider” and produce a “pre-typed 17-page doc” containing complicated diagrams and evaluation of Shell’s substance in simply 35 minutes. The petition additional contends that the ED lacks a sound jurisdictional foundation because the predicates of the FIR are based mostly on the alleged violation of FEMA and “FEMA, 1999…will not be against the law contemplated beneath PMLA”.
They claimed that HSRL’s cell phone export enterprise was a “legit enterprise enlargement” carried out by means of clear banking channels and that no incriminating materials was discovered in the course of the search.
The petitioner, by means of his son Kavya Arora, seeks a declaration that the arrest dated Might 9, 2026 and all consequent proceedings are “unlawful, unconstitutional and opposite to established ideas of legislation” and speedy launch of Mr. Arora from ED custody on the bottom of violation of necessary safeguards beneath Article 19 of the PMLA and Articles 14, 21 and 22 of the Structure.
(Edited by Naldeep Singh Dahiya)
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