The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested absconding former Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker from a five-star hotel in Delhi after a brief scuffle.
Chhoker, who is a former MLA from Haryana, and his sons, Vikas and Sikandar, were facing charges of cheating more than 1,500 homebuyers and siphoning off over Rs 500 crore funds obtained from them through their real-estate companies, commonly known as the Mahira Group.
A CCTV footage has surfaced online showing the ED officials chasing and then pinning the former MLA to the ground. The 61-year-old former legislator was caught from the Grappa Bar of the Shangri-La hotel on Ashoka Road around 10 pm on Sunday.
The ED officials had received a tip-off around 8:30 pm that Chhoker was present at the hotel bar along with some people at the hotel’s ground-floor bar, sources said.
VIDEO | CCTV footage of Enforcement Directorate apprehending former Haryana Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker.
(Source: Third Party)#DharamSinghChhoker pic.twitter.com/ntg2OTkZi5
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The officials said on being confronted by the ED officer, Chhoker started rushing towards the exit along with his personal security officer.
Gautam Barai, the investigating officer of the case, along with ED’s Gurugram zone Joint Director Navaneet Aggarwal, chased the former MLA and pinned him down.
Barai reached the spot in pursuance of the seven non-bailable warrants (NBWs) issued against the politician by courts, apart from a proclaimed-offender notification issued by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Gurugram.
The ED had booked the MLA and his sons under the anti-money laundering law in November 2021 and it has been asking the former MLA to join the probe since May last year by issuing summonses.
They officials alleged that Dharam Singh Chhoker tried to hit the ED officers and the hotel staff even as the security personnel present around were called in.
The federal agency called up the local police and with the help of the beat constable, Chhoker was taken to the ED headquarters in the capital and arrested at 2:37 am on Monday, the officials said.
The politician has been sent to a six-day ED custody by the Gurugram court. The former MLA from Samalkha in Panipat district lost the Haryana Assembly polls last year.
Sikandar was arrested by the ED in April last year from Uttarakhand’s Haridwar and is currently out on bail.
The ED said its probe has found that Dharam Singh Chhoker was a director in at least six Mahira Group companies (Mahira Homes Private Limited), which was developing real-estate projects in sectors 68, 103 and 104 of Gurugram.
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