Former BJP minister Choudhary Lal Singh arrested by ED in money laundering case

Jammu : Chairman of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan party and former BJP leader Choudhary Lal Singh has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case, official said here on Wednesday.

An official told the news agency that he was arrested hours after anti-corruption court in Jammu Tuesday dismissed his anticipatory bail application.

Singh was under investigation by the ED as part of the case lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against an educational trust run by his wife and former legislator Kanta Andotra.

He was called for questioning at ED office on Saturday and Monday and was picked up by the agency last night from Chawadi area of Sainik Colony in the outskirts of Jammu city.

The official said that Lal Singh was brought to Government Medical College Jammu today for medical check-up as part of legal formality to take him into custody.

Singh, a two-time MP and three-time MLA, switched from the Congress to the BJP in 2014 and was also a minister in the previous PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir which collapsed in June 2018 after the national party pulled out of the alliance.

Several months before the fall of the government, Singh resigned from the BJP and floated his own party Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan following an uproar over his participation in a rally held in support of Kathua rape and murder accused—(KNO)