AAP protests ED raids in Punjab, alleges Centre pressure before Assembly polls

Punjab's ruling Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday stepped up its attack on the BJP-led Centre over the Enforcement Directorate's recent search operations in the state, and held a protest outside the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority office. The party alleged that central probe agencies were being misused ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls.

Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said Punjab would not be "intimidated, coerced or silenced", while AAP leader Manish Sisodia alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had brought a "special kind of dacoits" from Delhi, in the form of ED officers, to "harass" Punjab.

The ED had on Tuesday carried out survey and search operations at the offices of GMADA in Mohali, Punjab Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Vikas Garg, and a Delhi-based realty company as part of a money laundering investigation.

According to sources, the agency is examining alleged irregularities in land acquisition, change of land use permissions, property auctions and alleged financial concessions granted to private realtors. The ED's search and survey operation concluded on Thursday afternoon.

On Wednesday, ED officials searched a residence in Chandigarh where former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain often stays. Sources said Jain was not present when the agency reached the house in Mohali Sector 39, and officials broke open the locks to enter.

The agency also searched the Ludhiana residence of the nephew of Punjab minister Hardeep Singh Mundian on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, AAP workers protested at the GMADA office in Mohali during the ED operation. Some protesters allegedly damaged the windshield of an SUV belonging to ED officials and deflated its tyres.

The protesters forced their way through police barricades and entered the GMADA complex despite the presence of Punjab police personnel. Several of them jostled with policemen while trying to enter the GMADA office, but were stopped. A few stones were also hurled, damaging a glass window of the office.

The ED action drew sharp reactions from the AAP, with leaders and ministers including Sisodia, Cheema, Harjot Bains, Lalchand Kataruchak, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Amansher Singh, Sherry Kalsi and Hardeep Singh Mundian addressing back-to-back press conferences against the Centre.

Cheema said the Modi government's "use" of the ED, the Income Tax Department and the Election Commission against opposition-ruled states had become its "trademark", but Punjab would not be intimidated and the state's three crore people would give the BJP a democratic reply.

Cheema said, "Over the past two-three days, officials have even entered locked and unoccupied houses by breaking locks. But nothing has been recovered from these premises. If nothing was found, then what was the purpose of breaking into closed houses?"

Sisodia launched a sharp attack on the Centre and the prime minister over the ED searches. He alleged that Modi had realised the BJP could not win Punjab through votes and was therefore trying to "capture" the state through the ED. Calling Modi a "tanashah" (dictator), the former Delhi deputy chief minister alleged that the prime minister had begun a "war" with Punjab and brought "special kind of dacoits" from Delhi, whom they call ED officers.

"They (ED officers) are Modi ji's 'employed dacoits'," Sisodia alleged, adding that they had been sent to harass traders, government officers and AAP leaders. He also said the BJP had turned to the agency after failing to make political gains through its campaign ahead of the Assembly elections, and accused it of trying to pressure traders, AAP workers, leaders and government officials, with ED officers repeatedly citing "orders from above".

Cabinet minister Hardeep Singh Mundian also accused the ED of pressuring his nephew's family during the search at their Ludhiana home, and claimed officials asked his relatives to tell him to leave the Aam Aadmi Party. He further claimed that the ED found no incriminating evidence during the operation.

The protests and political exchanges followed a series of ED searches linked to a money laundering investigation in Punjab, with the AAP accusing the Centre of using central agencies for political pressure and the ED operation ending on Thursday afternoon.