ED raids against Delhi Minister Raaj Kumar Anand end; minister alleges harassment

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate raids at the premises of Delhi Cabinet Minister Raaj Kumar Anand ended early Friday after about 23 hours, with the legislator alleging that the action was a "conspiracy to harass" Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders.

The searches, undertaken as part of a money laundering investigation against the minister and some others linked to him, were launched around 7:30 am on Thursday and came to close around 5 am on Friday.

The searches went on for about 23 hours and this is part of the conspiracy to harass AAP leaders. We were harassed since morning, the minister told reporters after ED officials left his residence in the Civil Lines area of the national capital.

The probe against Anand was undertaken as per provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMlA), the sources had said.

The investigation stems from a charge sheet filed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on charges of false declarations in imports for customs evasion of more than Rs 7 crore apart from international hawala transactions, the sources said.

A local court recently took cognisance of the DRI prosecution complaint after which the ED filed a PMLA case against Anand and some others, they said.

Anand, 57, is the minister for social welfare and SC/ST welfare among others in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government. He is an MLA from Patel Nagar.