Srinagar: Former minister of Jammu and Kashmir and chairman Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) Choudhary Lal Singh was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate for nearly 11 hours on Saturday (November 4) in connection with a case registered against an educational trust headed by his wife.
The questioning triggered protests by his supporters outside the ED office in Jammu, who alleged that this was a vindictive action against him at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) to force him to join the party as well as to stop him from contesting 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Questioning and protests
Singh appeared before the ED officials in Jammu on Saturday at 10 am and was allowed to leave the agency’s office in the late evening.
Shouting slogans “Jai Duggar, Jai Dogra”, “Dogra Ekta Zindabad” “Choudhary Lal Singh Zindabad”, his supporters gathered outside the ED office in Jammu and held protests against what they called was vindictive action and a political witch-hunt against their leader. Protests continued throughout the day and dispersed only after Lal Singh was allowed to leave the ED’s office. Singh has been asked to appear again before ED on Monday (November 6).
“This is just a pressure tactic to blackmail him to join BJP. This case will vanish if he switches over to BJP,” Dr. Haridutt Shishu, general secretary of Lal Singh-led DSSP told The Wire.
He said the questioning of Singh is part of the BJP’s “browbeating tactics” to harass candidates who will pose a threat to the party in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He said the high court has already stayed the re-investigation of the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
On April 19, 2023, the high court stayed the order of the trial court directing re-investigation of the case.
Singh’s wife, Kanta Andotra, a former MLA, said that BJP is harassing her husband due to fear of their defeat in Lok Sabha polls. “Why are they harassing him? He is neither chairperson nor a trustee of the RB Educational Trust,” she told mediapersons outside ED office on Saturday.
She said that they want to implicate him in a false case to stop him from contesting the polls.
When contacted, BJP’s general secretary (organisations), J&K unit, Ashok Koul told The Wire that the party has nothing to do with ED action against Singh.
What the ED says
On October 18, 2023, the ED, in an official handout, said that it has started investigation in the case on the basis of an FIR and subsequent chargesheet filed by the CBI against the RB Educational Trust at Jammu, Ajay Singh who was the then District Collector at Kathua and other revenue officers.
The RB Educational Trust is headed by Lal Singh’s wife Kanta Andotra, a former MLA.
The ED claimed that its investigation revealed that the Trust through its chairperson Kanta Andotra, Lal Singh and other trustees in connivance with officials of Revenue department had “entered into criminal conspiracy during the period 2011 for wrongful issuance of ‘fards’ so as to retain lands to the extent of more than 328 kanals in favor of her trust beyond the permissible limit of 100 standard kanals.”
Who is Lal Singh?
A former minister and two-time MP, Lal Singh is not new to controversies. He was forced to resign as minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government in April 2018 over his participation in a rally in support of the accused in the gang rape and murder of an eight -year tribal girl in Kathua district of Jammu. He quit the BJP in 2019 and launched his own political party, the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party.
After reading down of the Article 370 and reorganisation of J&K, he has become a vocal critic of BJP and its policies in Jammu and Kashmir.
He is seeking special constitutional safeguards for Jammuities under Article 371 of the Constitution of India.
Singh started his political career as a student. He was thrice elected as MLA from Basholi assembly segment of Kathua.
He won Lok Sabha elections from Kathua-Udhampur Lok Sabha seat in 2004 and 2019 on Congress ticket. After being denied LS ticket by Congress in 2014, Singh joined the BJP ahead of J&K Assembly polls in 2014. He won the 2014 Assembly election on BJP ticket and was minister in PDP-BJP coalition.
ED’s questioning of other J&K politicians
In the past four years, the Enforcement Directorate has also questioned several other politicians and their relatives in J&K.
National Conference president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, who is also head of the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), has been questioned multiple times by the ED since 2019 in connection with misusing funds of Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).
Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti and her mother Gulshan Nazir were also questioned by the ED in 2021 in connection with an alleged money laundering case.
