Mohali, September 1: The special CBI-PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court here has dismissed the discharge plea of former SAD leader Sarwan Singh Phillaur, son Damanvir Singh Phillaur, former Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Avinash Chander and 12 others in the Jagdish Bhola drug case. The court has ordered framing of charges against the accused on the next date of hearing, September 7.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had pleaded that the drug racket busted by the Punjab Police in 2012-14 had national and international ramifications. Following the police action, the premier agency had also registered a case on March 25, 2013, under provisions of PMLA on the basis of an FIR registered at Fatehgarh Sahib police station. Eight FIRs were investigated under the PMLA. The police had chargesheeted 104 persons.
The prosecution, represented by public prosecutor Jagjit Singh, had contended that the investigation so far revealed that drugs such as heroin, methamphatamine (‘Ice’), pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and related chemicals had been recovered by the police from the accused and their accomplices based in India and abroad.
The police had registered cases under the NDPS Act, the IPC and the Arms Act between 2013 and 2014, following which the ED had filed multiple ECIRs (enforcement case information reports) for PMLA violations. Earlier this year, charges were framed against 13 accused, including wrestler-turned-policeman-turned-drug lord Bhola.
Source Tribune India
