An alleged hawala operator has told the Vigilance Bureau of Punjab he laundered black money for former chief minister Amarinder Singh and his family when the politician was in power.
Chetan Gupta has told the Punjab Bureau that Sachin Duggal, the owner of a London-based software company, and Kim Sinha, Gupta’s friend from Lawrence School, Sanawar, were involved in two money transfers to Swiss Bank accounts on July 25 and October 31, 2003.
The transactions laundered black money allegedly belonging to Amarinder and his family. In his testimony about the first transaction, Gupta says: “Sachin Duggal (got) Swiss bank account details from Kim Sinha and I told him that this money needs to be transferred to this Swiss bank account in Switzerland. What I do know is when the money reached to Swiss bank account a part of it was stopped because they were questioning about from where the money is coming. Sachin was able to access only $50,000.”
The testimony means that Gupta routed Rs 40.6 lakh of black money to Duggal through Kim Sinha. Duggal could deposit only half the amount into Amarinder’s son Raninder Singh’s account because the Swiss bank was suspicious about the money transfer and raised questions.
Vigilance Bureau officials alleged Duggal played a key role in Raninder’s hawala transactions. Duggal’s company set up shop in India in 2002, the year Amarinder became Chief Minister.
Gupta confirms Duggal and Sinha's involvement in a second hawala transaction for Raninder, also known as Tikku. “Tikkuji gave some further money, roughly Rs 1 lakh, to be sent again,” claims Gupta.
Gupta, Raninder, Duggal and Sinha came together when Amarinder announced the Punjab Intranet project. Vigilance officials allege the company was a front to siphon black money belonging to Amarinder's family to Swiss Bank accounts.
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