Haryana Election Results: Congress candidate Rao Dan Singh who was facing a probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday lost the Mahendragarh Assembly Seat from Haryana to BJP candidate. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kanwar Singh won the Mahendragarh assembly constituency seat in Haryana.
A four-term legislator, Singh fought in the Lok Sabha elections from the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat earlier this year but lost to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Dharambir Singh by over 41,000 votes. Singh is known to be a close associate of former Haryana Chief Minister and current Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Ahead of the Haryana Assembly election, the Congress heavyweight came under the ED's radar for alleged money laundering. The Enforcement Directorate seized assets valued at over Rs 44 crore, connected to Haryana Congress MLA Rao Dan Singh, his son, and others, as part of a money-laundering probe.
Rao Dan Singh (65) represents the Mahendragarh constituency and has been nominated by the Congress to contest the same seat in the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections on October 5.
According to the ED, the assets attached include 31 flats in Coban Residency, Sector 99A in Gurugram, and 2.25 acres of land in Harsaru village, also in Gurugram, all linked to Rao Dan Singh and his son, Akshat Singh. The agency also seized properties in Delhi, Gurugram, Rewari (Haryana), and Jaipur (Rajasthan), linked to companies associated with Suncity Projects Private Limited and ILD Group, reported news agency PTI.
This money-laundering case originates from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR against Allied Strips Limited, a company accused of defrauding a consortium of banks, led by Canara Bank, of Rs 1,392.86 crore. Allied Strips Limited, which produced cold-rolled steel, entered insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) in 2018 and was later acquired by another firm.
The ED alleges that entities connected to Rao Dan Singh received Rs 19 crore from the misappropriated bank funds, which were then invested in the purchase of flats and land. These entities reportedly manipulated their financial records to conceal the transactions by shifting the funds to other individuals.
The ED claims that the scheme involved "siphoning off" funds obtained through loans from banks, transferring the money to other companies as unsecured loans and advances, and recording fictitious transactions. These activities reportedly allowed the suspects to use the funds to purchase land and other assets for long-term investments.