After grilling him for three days, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) formally arrested former minister and veteran politician of Jammu and Kashmir in a money laundering case.
The ED arrested Singh after his anticipatory bail was rejected by the anti-corruption court in Jammu on Tuesday.
Soon after his pre-arrest bail was rejected, the ED teams started a search for Lal Singh and arrested him from the house of a contractor Suraj Singh near Duggar Haveli at Chowadi on the outskirts of the City.
Later, Lal Singh was whisked away to the ED office at Narwal for questioning.
On Tuesday, the Special Judge CBI Jammu Bala Joyti rejected the anticipatory bail application of Choudhary Lal Singh, who is the founder of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP).
The Court, however, extended the bail application of Kanta Andotra, wife of Choudhary Lal Singh, and Dr. Kranti Singh, daughter of Lal Singh, up to November 30 in a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate.
Earlier ED questioned Lal Singh for three days
Lal Singh was grilled by the officials of the ED in Jammu for three successive days in a case of alleged money laundering by RB Educational Trust – an educational society run by his family.
Singh's questioning came 20 days after the ED had searched his premises at Kathua on October 17.
The next day on October 18, his wife Kanta Andotra, an ex-MLA from Basohli, was called to the ED office and questioned about the land in possession of RB Educational Trust at Rajbagh in Kathua district.
"It is only political witch-hunting ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as the BJP knows that in the absence of Singh's support, it cannot win from Udhampur-Kathua parliamentary constituency," alleged Lal Singh's wife Kanta Andotra.
Who is Choudhary Lal Singh?
Founder of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) Choudhary Lal Singh is a two-time Lok Sabha member and three-time MLA.
Singh switched from Congress to the BJP in 2014 and was also a minister in the previous PDP-BJP government, which collapsed in June 2018.
Singh had been a two-time Lok Sabha member from Udhampur-Kathua parliamentary constituency and a three-time MLA from Basohli.
Last time, he was elected MLA during the 2014 assembly elections as a BJP nominee after he had quit the Congress and joined the Saffron Brigade. He was later inducted as a cabinet minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government.
Later, he floated his own party, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan, and even contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from both the Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Kathua constituencies, but lost in both places.
