The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday questioned Punjab-cadre IAS officer Kanwal Preet Brar for nearly seven hours in connection with its money-laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in change of land use (CLU) approvals for major real-estate projects in Punjab.
They were accused of allegedly cheating landowners and customers through fraudulent CLUs and related documents. The money-laundering case stems from an FIR registered at Mullanpur police station in November 2022 against Sehgal and other office-bearers of the Indian Cooperative Housing Building Society (ICHBS), including Suresh Kumar Bajaj, Aashish Kamra and Rajesh Girdhar. Sehgal, described by the ED as a key promoter of the Suntec City project, was arrested by the agency on May 22.
The 2007-batch IAS officer, who served as director, town and country planning, in 2024 and is currently posted as Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, was earlier questioned for nine hours at the ED’s regional headquarters in Jalandhar on August 18.
This was Brar’s second appearance before the agency.
The questioning comes after the ED filed a nearly 3,500-page prosecution complaint before the special PMLA court in Mohali on July 20. The agency has accused realtor Ajay Sehgal of being a key figure in the alleged generation and concealment of proceeds of crime estimated at around ₹ 348 crore.
An ED official familiar with the investigation said Brar had been asked to bring additional documents concerning clearances granted for two real-estate projects, including Suntec City and Altus Space Builders Pvt Ltd, by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) at Mullanpur in New Chandigarh.
