Plea against Haryana Congress MLA: HC directs him to surrender or be arrested

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker, facing a money laundering case, should either surrender or be arrested by Wednesday.

The observations were made during the hearing of a plea filed by a Panipat resident, a social activist, who alleged that the agencies have failed to act against Chhoker as despite non bailable warrants issued against him, he was doing electioneering in his constituency.

Chhoker is seeking re-election from the Samalkha constituency in Panipat for the October 5 Haryana Assembly elections.

The bench headed by Justice Sureshwar Thakur on Tuesday verbally observed that Chhoker should either surrender or be arrested by Wednesday.

He is facing a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on charges of money laundering and other offences.

As per the plea, he has many FIRs registered against him and is also being investigated by the ED.

In one case non-bailable warrants were issued by a Gurugram court against which Chhoker approached the high court but failed to get relief, the plea claims.

"A petition had come up for hearing before division bench. The petitioner stated that he (Chhoker) is facing many cases and Enforcement Directorate action is also going on against him. Non bailable warrants have also been issued against him, but he is openly canvassing for the elections and no action is being taken against him. The court directed that he should surrender by Wednesday or be arrested," Haryana's Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan told reporters here.

On July 25 last year, the ED had raided multiple premises linked to Chhoker and his son as part of a money laundering probe against them linked to the alleged real estate fraud.

The case against Chhoker was registered by the ED in 2021.