Chandigarh: Damanvir Singh, son of former Punjab Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur, has been issued fresh summons by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for June 13.
He would be questioned by ED officials for his alleged involvement in the synthetic drug racket. The ED is learnt to have secured most of the documents from the Income Tax Department to establish Damanvir’s “business dealings” with industrialist Chunni Lal Gaba.
The directorate has been investigating Gaba on the charges of supplying pseudoephedrine (used to make ICE) to druglord Varinder ‘Raja’, who in turn used to supply it to his partners in Canada. Gaba has a pharmaceutical industry in Baddi, for which he was getting pseudoephedrine from suppliers in south India. He, too, has been issued summons for questioning on June 9.
Damanvir and Gaba’s role in the drug racket was revealed by alleged druglord Jagdish Singh Bhola during his interrogation earlier this year. He had named Delhi-based synthetic drug supplier Varinder ‘Raja’ (now in Patiala jail) and said that Damanvir had introduced Varinder Raja to Chunni Lal Gaba. This had opened Pandora’s box, ultimately forcing the SAD-BJP government to ask Damanvir’s father Sarwan Singh Phillaur to quit. Over the past four months, the ED has issued at least three summons to both Damanvir and Gaba, but the duo have so far managed to evade their questioning.
With the ED now getting majority of documents seized by the Income Tax Department during a search operation carried on Gaba’s factories on February 18, which will establish the financial dealings between Gaba, Damanvir and Raja, the noose is finally tightening around the Phillaurs and Gaba. Initially, the IT Department was not handing over these documents to the ED. It was only after the ED approached the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act Court that the court directed the IT authorities to hand over these documents to the ED before June 4.
Noose tightening
* Damanvir Singh, son of former Punjab Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur, has been issued summons for June 13
* He would be questioned by ED officials for his alleged involvement in the synthetic drug racket
* The ED has issued three summons to Damanvir, but he managed to evade questioning
* His alleged role in the case was revealed by alleged druglord Jagdish Singh Bhola