ED raids AAP MLA Dr Amandeep Arora in Punjab’s Moga: What 2024 FIR says

The Enforcement Directorate Wednesday conducted searches at the premises of ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Dr Amandeep Kaur Arora in Punjab's Moga. An ED source said searches are “in connection with fraudulent acquisition of government and institutionalised properties and misappropriation of public funds.” Dr Arora, 42, has been re-nominated by AAP from Moga and her name figures in the first list of 40 candidates announced by the ruling party for 2027 Punjab Assembly polls.

She is also the chief of the party's women's wing in Punjab. The ED teams are conducting searches at seven premises, including Arora's Icon Heights flat, GT Road, and her camp office in Model Colony, Dosanjh Road in Moga.

Her camp office operates from a bungalow where she meets people throughout the day. A group of AAP workers gathered outside the MLA's camp office where the search is being conducted and raised slogans of "BJP murdabad, AAP zindabad." They said that the BJP-led Central Government was playing vendetta politics against AAP ahead of the Assembly polls.

A source from the ED said that raids are being conducted based on a case registered by the Punjab Police in June 2024 concerning fraudulent mutation of government land acquired for National Highway No 754A and wrongful disbursement of compensation.

"The searches covered premises associated with Smt Amandeep Kaur Arora, AAP's Women's Wing Punjab president and Moga MLA, her husband Dr Rakesh Arora, family members, associates and others, including a de-addiction hospital associated with Dr Rakesh Arora," the source added.

The First Information Report (FIR) dated June 16, 2024, was registered at Moga district's Dharamkot police station for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy against revenue officer Navdeep Singh and a woman migrant labourer, Dilkhush Kumari, based on the complaint of the additional deputy commissioner.

It was alleged that the revenue officer prepared forged documents of government land in the name of Dilkhush Kumari of Kishanpura village to claim compensation of Rs 1 crore. The said land was acquired for the NH 754-A project in Adraman village of Dharamkot.

A compensation of Rs 1,00,65,724 was issued to Kumari as a beneficiary by the Moga revenue officer. However, later, during a verification, it came to light that the land for which compensation was issued was already owned by the state government.

Under a planned conspiracy, forged documents and fake land record entries were prepared in the name of Kumari, and the accused managed to get the compensation issued, as per the FIR. The NH 754-A is the official national highway designation given to the under-construction Amritsar–Jamnagar Economic Corridor connecting Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

A qualified doctor who started practising in 2008 after completing her medical studies in Ukraine, Arora had resigned as a medical officer from Army Polyclinic to contest the 2022 Punjab polls. A first-time MLA, she had defeated Congress's Malvika Sood, sister of actor Sonu Sood and a native of Moga, by over 20,000 votes to win the Moga seat.

Arora is a confidante of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's wife Dr Gurpreet Kaur. Arora had joined AAP as a worker in 2015, but continued practising as a doctor before contesting the 2022 polls. Her husband Rakesh Arora, also a doctor, is a government employee.

In January 2024, the Punjab Lokpal had summoned Dr Amandeep Kaur Arora and three of her family members on the complaint of her former personal assistant (PA), Harsh Aren, who has alleged that the legislator was involved in "buying benami properties, extorting money from a revenue official, and encroaching government land," among others.

The MLA had denied all allegations and said that she was "open for any inquiry" and that Aren, who was just an AAP supporter, "was misusing AAP's name for his real estate business". In May this year, Dr Arora filed a defamation suit against Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal, who had switched from AAP to BJP, for allegedly calling the AAP MLAs “bhed bakri” (goats and sheep).

“Swati Maliwal ji called AAP MLAs ‘bhed bakri’ in her post on X, which is highly demeaning and defamatory. We are not sheep and goats but highly qualified and elected members of the Punjab Assembly. I am a qualified doctor.

I have worked as a doctor for seven years before joining politics," Amandeep had said, justifying the defamation suit she filed against Maliwal. Reacting to ED raids at Dr Arora's premises on Wednesday, Maliwal posted on X: "Cowardly Kejriwal ji has gotten this MLA to file a defamation case against me in Punjab.

He must have thought I would get scared. I am Swati Maliwal, not some Arvind Kejriwal who would write an apology in the court and beg for forgiveness… Go ahead, file 100 cases against me in Punjab if you have guts.

They say I compared AAP MLAs to innocent sheep and goats– how could I do that? Fair point, actually- a goat is innocent after all…" In June 2023, following his transfer to Patiala, a Moga health supervisor named Mahinder Pal Loomba publicly accused Dr Arora of corruption.

He alleged that the MLA took a Rs 3 lakh bribe for a senior medical officer's posting and diverted state hospital resources (including three air conditioners and a driver) for her personal use. Dr Arora dismissed the allegations as completely baseless and countered by sending a legal defamation notice to Loomba.

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent at The Indian Express, based in Ludhiana (Punjab). She is w... Read More