MOHALI: In a major crackdown on illicit land deals and administrative corruption, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted a surprise raid at the sub-registrar’s office in block Majri, located in New Chandigarh.
The high-stakes operation centres around an investigation into the alleged purchase and sale of high-value benami lands (properties held by proxies). Sources reveal that the federal agency is tracking the financial footprints of Piyush Kumar, a prominent local builder whose name has been deeply intertwined with the Punjab bureaucracy for the past two decades.
Kumar is accused of acting as a front for top-ranking IAS and IPS officers, allegedly helping them park unaccounted wealth into premium real estate using dummy entities.
Midnight Oil Burned Over Land Registries
During the multi-hour raid, a team of ED officials cordoned off the Majri office, gaining access to extensive property archives. Investigators meticulously scrutinized land registries, mutation records, and ownership deeds spanning several years.
According to sources close to the development, the agency’s primary objective is twofold:
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Unmasking Beneficial Owners: Identifying the actual individuals who funded and control these properties, despite their names being absent from official titles.
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Tracing the Money Trail: Uncovering the exact source of funds utilized in these multi-crore transactions to establish money laundering links.
Insiders confirm that several incriminating documents and digital logs have been taken into possession by the ED for forensic analysis.
Panic Ribbons Through Bureaucratic and Real Estate Circles
The sudden federal action has sent shockwaves through the real estate sector and the state’s administrative corridors. For years, the New Chandigarh-Mohali belt has seen an unprecedented real estate boom, often shadowed by whispers of bureaucratic collusion and illegal Change of Land Use (CLU) clearances.
This raid is viewed as part of a wider, more aggressive push by federal agencies to dismantle the politico-bureaucrat-builder nexus in the region.
While the ED has not yet issued an official statement regarding the seizures or named specific officers, the panic in the power corridors suggests high-profile names may soon be summoned. With the seized data currently undergoing intense evaluation, major revelations and formal arrests are highly anticipated in the coming days.
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