Former J&K Minister Lal Singh arrested by ED in PMLA case
   Date :08-Nov-2023

Lal Singh  arrested  
 
 
 
JAMMU,
FORMER Jammu and Kashmir Minister Lal Singh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate here on Tuesday, hours after an anti-corruption court dismissed his anticipatory bail application in a money laundering case, officials said. Singh was under investigation by the federal agency 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, they said.
Choudhary Lal Singh, the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) chairman, was arrested from a house in the Chawadi area of Sainik Colony on the outskirts of the city in the evening, an official said.
 
The official also said that the former minister tried his best to “dodge” the agency and “evade arrest”. Hearing the news of Singh’s arrest, a group of his supporters, led by Andotra, assembled outside the ED office in Narwal and tried to enter but were prevented by CRPF personnel. Andotra started weeping, asking for permission to meet her husband.
Police reinforcements have been rushed to the scene to maintain law and order, officials said. 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 the DSSP following an uproar over his participation in a rally held in support of the accused in a rape and murder case involving an eight-year-old girl in Kathua in January 2018. He, however, defended his participation in the rally, claiming that he was there to “defuse the situation”.