Court grants regular bail to Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in money laundering case

Former Punjab MLA and Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who was arrested in connection with a money laundering case, was granted regular bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday.

In November last year, Khaira was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.

Khaira was arrested by the Delhi team of the ED after it collected enough evidence against the leader in connection with the case.

It is alleged that Khaira visited the United States in 2016 when he was with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and raised funds totalling an amount of USD 1,19,000 from the non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the run-up to Punjab state assembly elections.

ED recovered the documents pertaining to this funding during a raid in March this year, and when he was questioned about it, he disclosed entire fund-raising trip was organised by the AAP, and that he had no knowledge of the funding.

Khaira was elected to the state assembly in 2017 from Bholath in Kapurthala district on an AAP ticket.

Two years ago, he quit the AAP and formed the Punjab Ekta Party (PEP), which he merged with the Congress in June this year.

In September this year, the ED recorded the statement of AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta in connection with alleged foreign funds raised by the party in the run-up to 2017 Punjab assembly elections -- a move that the AAP described as a political vendetta at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

( With inputs from ANI )

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