Bhupinder Singh Honey sent to 14-day judicial custody

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS) A court in Punjab's Jalandhar on Friday sent Bhupinder Singh Honey -- nephew of Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, arrested earlier this month in a money laundering case pertaining to illegal sand mining, to a 14-day judicial custody, officials said.

Honey was presented at the court after his Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody expired on Friday. Earlier, on two occasions, the court had granted ED the custody of Honey.

On Friday, the ED did not seek further custody. The court, after hearing the arguments, remanded Honey to judicial custody.

He was arrested during the intervening night of February 3 and 4 by the ED which later got his custody till February 8. It was later extended till February 11.

During the questioning, the ED confronted him with various documents and also recorded his statements.

"Honey was evasive and was not cooperating with the probe agency," a source had earlier said.

Harneet Singh Oberoi, his counsel, was allowed to meet him on alternate days.

A few documents accessed by IANS mentioned that Honey allegedly used to take money from officials in lieu of their choice of transfer and posting.

"Moreover, Bhupinder Singh Honey has explicitly stated in his statement during search, inter-alia, that all cash which was seized from his residential premises at Ludhiana (Rs 4.09 crore), Sandeep Kumar's premises at Ludhiana (Rs 1.99 crore) and from the Homeland House Premises at Mohali (Rs 3.89 crore) actually pertained to him. He admitted to have generated such proceeds of crime through mining related activities including clearance of mining files and transfer of officials," read the ED document accessed by the IANS.

Sources have claimed since Channi was close to Chhani, he was using the political connection to earn huge profit.

On January 18, the ED had conducted raids at ten different locations including Homeland Heights -- the residence of Honey.

The ED continued its raids at different places for two days and recovered incriminating documents.

The officials also recorded the statement of Kudrat Deep Singh -- Honey's business partner.

An official had said that the ED has seized incriminating documents pertaining to illegal sand mining, property transactions, cell phones, gold worth above Rs 21 lakh, a watch worth Rs 12 lakh, and cash of Rs 10 crore during the raid.

The ED's case is on the basis of a two year-old FIR.

On March 7, 2018 an FIR was lodged by Punjab Police under sections 21(1), 4(1) of mines and mineral act read with sections 379, 420, 465, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC. The FIR was filed against more than 10 individuals.

Honey was not named in the Punjab Police's FIR while Kudrat Deep Singh was given a clean chit in the matter.

The ED initiated a money laundering probe on the basis of this FIR pertaining to illegal sand mining in Punjab in November 2021.