ED arrests money laundering businessman cum politician & party hopper ex-TMC MP K D Singh
K D Singh in trouble after caught for cheating, arrested by ED At last K D Singh, the money laundering businessman cum politicians and ex-Rajya Sabha MP arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for cheating in an Rs.1,900 crores Ponzi scheme. Chandigarh-based Kanwar Deep Singh (59) who started Turbo Industries, Republic of Chicken and Alchemist Group landed in politics by becoming a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) in 2010 from Jharkhand under the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) party and then shifted to Trinamool Congress (TMC) and became its MP in 2014. Donât ask how a Chandigarh-based Punjabi businessman has to do with Tribal party JMM and Kolkata based Trinamool Congress â that is an out-of-syllabus question. He became the TMC MP for 10 years â That is it.
When the BJP came to power, K D Singh was hobnobbing with many BJP leaders and became a blacklisted person in TMC and it is a known secret that he financed the infamous sting operation known as Narada Sting on TMC MPs. This was done by the controversial Narada web portalâs owner Mathew Samuel who is known for blackmailing. PGurus reported how Narada used pliable lady journalists to seduce many to conduct sting operations[1]. K D Singh funded this sting operation to kill the political future of his enemies in TMC. Tehelka Magazineâs main funder from 2008 was K D Singh and later became the major promoter from 2011.
K D Singh who belongs to the Chandigarh lobby was also handling the money of many politicians and is believed to have 3 or 4 executive jets registered in India and abroad. Basically, K D Singh was a pro-Congress and showered money everywhere to all parties and many media houses to be in the good books of all. According to his close friends, businessman K D Singh joined politics to pay less bribe amounts and get things done fast.
He was a good friend of former Finance Minister late Arun Jaitley and the ED, under Finance Ministry started its probe against K D Singh only in September 2019, a few weeks after Jaitleyâs death. The agency charged the 59-year-old founder of Alchemist Ltd., with non-cooperation in the investigation and arrested him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday night. The Court granted custody till January 16.
The central probe agency had carried out searches at the premises of Singh and those linked to him in Delhi and Chandigarh in September 2019 and had seized cash worth Rs.32 lakhs and USD 10,000 then. The businessman was the chairman of Alchemist Ltd., which deals in pharmaceuticals and other sectors before he resigned in 2012. He is stated to be the Chairman emeritus and founder of the business group at present. The ED is probing him as part of two money laundering cases and has questioned him in the past as well.
K D Singh floated many shell companies for his dubious money deals and was caught by the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI). He invested in many media firms and was a regular donor to many prominent media houses, partly from his ownership in Tehelka. He was also the President of Indian Hockey Federation. In a nutshell, K D Singh loved to throw money around to get posts. Due to his sponsoring of Narada Sting Operation against TMC MPs, he was in the bad books of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee from 2015 onwards. Then he was buttering BJP leadership through Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, but could not succeed.
According to ED, money laundering case is around Rs.1,900 crores and the agency had attached assets worth Rs.239 crores of Alchemist Infra Realty Ltd in 2019. The charge against K D Singh is that the company launched an illegal collective investment scheme, also called a Ponzi or a Chit Fund scheme, and mobilised funds of about Rs.1,916 crores from the public in the years preceding 2015. The second money laundering case against him and others is based on a First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Kolkata Police.
In this criminal case initiated in 2018, the Kolkata Police had booked Singh, his son Karandeep Singh, Alchemist Township India Limited, Alchemist Holdings Limited and various other group companies and directors for cheating thousands of customers. âSingh through companies raised a huge amount of money from thousands of customers in the garb of investments by luring them with high returns and also against sale and booking of plots and flats.â
âSo far, an investigation has revealed that these funds raised from public were not used for the intended purpose and were diverted or siphoned off to various group companies,â said ED. Money so collected from the innocent public, it had said, has been transferred in a circular manner in order to conceal and layer in a âfraudulentâ manner.
âFurther, various web of entities involved in this process is having dummy directors. These directors have no idea to state the purpose for which the said money was being collected and transferred,â said ED.