Ex-IAS officer in dock: ED to quiz Mohinder Singh in PMLA case in Lucknow today

Former top bureaucrat and retired IAS officer, Mohinder Singh, has been summoned by Enforcement Directorate (ED) at its Lucknow office for questioning in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case in connection with the fraud committed by M/s Hacienda Projects Private Limited (HPPL), its promoters and directors and related entities, as well as persons against homebuyers of ‘Lotus 300’ projects to the tune of ₹426 crore.
A senior ED official said that the retired IAS officer has been issued a summons to remain present at ED Lucknow unit office on September 25 for questioning in the PMLA case. He said the ED had initiated investigation on the basis of directions of the Allahabad high court in 2019 and on the basis of multiple FIRs registered by Economic Offences Wing (EOW), New Delhi, against M/s Hacienda Projects Pvt Ltd, its director, officials and others. They had been accused of diverting and siphoning off the hard-earned money of investors and home buyers and ultimately not providing them the promised flats when the retired IAS officer was the CEO of Noida Authority, during the Bahujan Samaj Party government between 2007 and 2012.
The retired bureaucrat was among one of the prominent IAS officers, who enjoyed immense clout when the BSP was in power in the state. Earlier on September 17 and 18, the ED had recovered cash as well as diamond and gold jewelry worth ₹42.56 crore while carrying out simultaneous search operations conducted at 18 locations in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh and Goa in the case. The searches were carried out at the Chandigarh residence of the retired officer.
In the searches, cash and jewellery worth ₹42.56 crore, including ₹85 lakh as unexplained cash was recovered. This included gold and diamond jewellery worth ₹29.35 crore, diamonds worth ₹7.1 crore, including a solitaire worth ₹5.26 crore. Many property documents worth crores of rupees were recovered and seized for further evaluation.
The searches were carried out at the office and residences of the company, promoters and directors of companies and related entities namely HPPL, M/S Cloud 9 Projects Pvt. Ltd, including the retired officers, Surpreet Singh Suri, Vidur Bhardwaj, Nirmal Singh and two brothers Aditya Gupta, Ashish Gupta and others, who all have been found involved in money laundering.
The two brothers are partners in HPPL, which had carpet exports work with the name of Sharada Exports, and they had constructed residential apartments in Gautam Buddh Nagar, commonly known as Noida.