Overview
- The Enforcement Directorate carried out coordinated searches on Thursday at 11 locations in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Ludhiana and surveyed the PSIEC office while seizing documents and digital devices.
- Investigators recovered unaccounted cash of Rs 12.15 lakh and froze about Rs 4.01 crore in bank deposits linked to two retired PSIEC managers, Surinder Pal Singh and Jaswinder Singh Randhawa.
- The ED says the probe, opened after a Vigilance Bureau FIR, alleges industrial plots were allotted to relatives, friends and fictitious companies in exchange for large bribes and layered cash transactions.
- The agency alleges many allotted plots were later bifurcated, changed to residential or commercial use and sold at market rates through shell entities, generating alleged proceeds the ED is tracing under money‑laundering rules.
- Background reporting shows the Vigilance Bureau registered earlier criminal cases and took action against several PSIEC officials in 2024, and the ED’s asset freezes and evidence seizures aim to preserve proceeds while the investigation continues.