The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested former Haryana MLA Dilbag Singh and his aide Kulwinder Singh in an alleged illegal mining-linked money laundering investigation, official sources said.

The Enforcement Directorate had raided Singh, a former legislator of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) from the Yamuna Nagar assembly seat, and Congress MLA from Sonipat, Surender Panwar, as well as their linked entities on January 4 and the searches ended after five days on Monday.

About 20 locations were covered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the searches.

The former Haryana MLA and his aide have been taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the two will be produced before a local court where the agency will seek their further custody in the illegal mining case as well in a fresh case of possession of illicit firearms.

At least five "illegal" rifles, 300 bullets and cartridges, more than a 100 liquor bottles and Rs 5 crore in cash were recovered by the ED from the premises of Dilbag Singh and linked persons during the searches.

The central agency filed an FIR at the Pratap Nagar police station during the course of the searches after it found that the licence of the weapons recovered by it had expired.

The ED also shared information about the recovery of liquor bottles with the Haryana excise department that filed another police complaint for storing these bottles in an alleged illegal manner.

The wine boxes and bottles were found at a farmhouse in Raiyanwala village of Yamuna Nagar district.

The money laundering case stems from several FIRs registered by the Haryana Police to probe alleged illegal mining of boulders, gravel and sand that took place in the past in Yamuna Nagar and the nearby districts even after the lease expiry period and a ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

The central agency is also probing alleged fraud in the 'e-Ravana' scheme, an online portal that was introduced by the Haryana government in 2020 to simplify collection of royalties and taxes and to prevent tax evasion in mining areas.

The activities were being run by a syndicate allegedly linked to the two politicians, sources in the ED had claimed.

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