Punjab Minister Sanjeev Arora remanded to seven-day ED custody in over Rs 100 crore GST fraudulent case

Arora was sent to the ED custody hours after the agency arrested him on May 9 from Chandigarh and produced before the court at 11.20 pm by the agency officers for seeking custodial interrogation.

Arora was arrested following a day-long search at his four premises, including his residence, his associated entities, and one office premises belonging to Hampton Sky Realty Limited (HSRL), which is also under the agency's scanner in the case.

The ED's action was part of an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) recorded by it on May 5, 2026.

ED sought Arora's custodial remand by alleging that on April 17, 2026, a search and seizure operation was conducted by the agency at the premises of HSRL (earlier known as "Ritesh Properties and Industries Ltd) and others under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999, based on credible information regarding highly suspicious inward remittances received in the guise of bogus exports, in violation of the provisions of FEMA, and during the course of search proceedings, it is found that HSRL, has shown sale of mobile phone, valued at approximately Rs 157.12 crores from May 12, 2023 to October 27, 2023 during 2023-24 to several local and overseas entities. It is further alleged that out of this, exports worth about Rs 102.50 crore were made to two UAE-based entities-- Fortbel Telecom FZCO and Dragon Global FZCO.

A complaint regarding the case was also filed at Gurugram's Udyog Vihar Police Station. It is alleged in the FIR that HSRL has reported the sale of mobile phones valued at approximately Rs 157.12 crores during the financial year 2023-24 to local and overseas entities, and out of the said amount, the exports to the extent of Rs 102.50 crores were made to only two UAE-based entities, namely Fortbel Telecom FZCO and Dragon Global FZCO.

ED said Fortbel Telecom FZCO is a related entity of Fortbell Gadget Pvt Ltd, which is beneficially owned and controlled by Hemant Sood and Chander Sekhar, the other beneficial owners of HSRL.

ED has accused in Arora's remand copy that the "HSRL has purportedly procured mobile phones from various domestic entities, and most of the supplier entities are non-existent, shell and dummy firms or entities with no financial capacity, which have issued bogus invoices without actual supply of goods."

"Several such entities are either non-filers of Income Tax Returns, reporting negligible income, or have been deregistered or suspended under GST shortly after a brief period of operation. The GST Department has confirmed that GST registration of these entities is either cancelled or suspended. Multiple supplier entities are interconnected through common mobile numbers, email IDs, and other identifiers, indicating that these entities are controlled by a single group of persons for the purpose of generating accommodation entries and fake invoices," mentions the ED in the remanded copy. Pointing out that "certain entities in the chain do not have any genuine upstream suppliers", the agency said it is clearly established that "the invoices raised by them were fictitious in nature."

"The mobile number linked to these entities, i.e., 9053083961, is owned by one Kartik Verma, who was also covered under the FEMA search and seizure operation on April 17, 2026, conducted by ED. The investigation revealed that the number has been misused by certain individuals for generating fake invoices.

Kartik Verma has also made a complaint with Haryana Police, stating therein that he has been receiving SMS from the GST Department regarding notices issued on certain firms which have been registered with GST by linking with his mobile number 9053083961.

The state police FIR was registered for commission of the offences punishable under various sections of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which are scheduled offences as defined in Part A of the schedule to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

ED said it has been prima facie revealed that the proceeds of crime, being Rs 157.12 crore were generated by committing aforesaid scheduled offences, accordingly, an ECIR/HIU-1/14/2026 dated May 5, 2026 was recorded by the ED and investigation ensued into the commission of offence of money laundering and for tracing, attachment, and confiscation of the proceeds of crime and to identify the person connected with the process and activities connected with the proceeds with the crime and proceed in the accordance with law.

During the investigation, the ED said, HSRL is found to be "beneficially owned and controlled by Sanieev Arora and his family members, with Kavya Arora, son of Sanjeev Arora, as Managing Director, along with Hemant Sood, Chander Sekhar, Findoc Finvest Pvt Ltd and others.

ED further said HSRL sold mobile phones worth Rs 157.12 crore during the Financial Year 2023-24, to several local and overseas entities.

"Sanjeev Arora was the Chairman and Managing Director of HISRL and was responsible for the conduct of the business of the company when the aforesaid illicit transactions took place," accused the ED in remand copy.

Further, a detailed analysis of exports made by HSRL was undertaken wherein it was found that from May 2023 to October 2023, HSRL has purportedly exported goods (mobile phones) to the tune of Rs 102.50 crores to Fortbel Telecom FZCO, and Dragon Global FZCO and as per material collected, Rahul Aggrawal is the beneficial owner of these two foreign entities to whom the mobiles phones are purported to be exported.

"A perusal of the information available reveals that Rahul Aggrawal was an employee with Findoc Group (another major shareholder of HSRL) and has drawn a salary from Findoc Sons. Further, the supply chain of mobile phones purchased by HSRL was analysed and scrutinised, which revealed that most of the suppliers of HSRL are dummy and fake entities and were not found to be dealing in the supply of mobile phones and merely provided accommodation entries to HSRL," said the agency.

The ED further said that a huge amount of funds received by HSRL from the UAE's Fortbel Telecom FZCO and Dragon Global FZCO have been either used in HSRL or transferred to the various entities, which are found to be "shell and fake entities." (ANI)