Chandigarh: Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers raided the Sector-2 residence of Punjab Cabinet Minister Sanjeev Arora in the early hours of Saturday, arriving in with about 20 vehicles around 7:00 AM for a major search effort.
The operation officially started at 7:25 AM and continued as reports came in, backed by a large team of CIA and Special Forces personnel who secured the neighbourhood to manage order amid growing crowds.
This latest ED action comes amid rising political tensions in Punjab. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann quickly hit back on social media platform X, calling
the raid politically motivated.
He stated, “it was the third time in a year and the second time in a month that the minister’s residence had been searched, adding that ‘nothing has been recovered so far.’” Mann slammed the central government for “misusing investigative agencies.” He added that “Punjab, known as the land of Gurus and martyrs like Bhagat Singh, would not bow to pressure or intimidation.”
The raid’s timing adds to the tension, just days after ED conducted raids in about 12 locations in Mohali and Chandigarh on Thursday over a separate money laundering case.
That search targeted an IT entrepreneur’s flat in Mohali’s Western Towers Society, Chhajju Majra, where over ₹25 lakh in cash was thrown from a ninth-floor window to avoid seizure, as shown in viral videos. Sanjeev Arora, a top AAP leader with ties to real estate firm Ritesh Properties, faced raids earlier in April on FEMA issues at multiple locations, but no charges have been filed yet.