Court Orders Arrest of Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and police to arrest Congress MLA Dharam Singh Chhoker if he does not surrender within 24 hours. Chhoker is facing a money laundering case registered against him by the ED in 2023. He is a close aide of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and is seeking re-election from the Samalkha constituency in the state assembly elections.
Haryana Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan stated that a petition to take action against Chhoker was filed in the High Court. He mentioned, “Dharam Singh Chhoker is a sitting MLA from Samalkha and is contesting elections from there again. He has many criminal cases registered against him. Non-bailable warrants have also been issued, and ED action is pending against him. His anticipatory bail petition has been rejected, yet no action has been taken against him while he openly contests elections.”
Mahajan added, “The court has ordered him to surrender or else be arrested by the police. The court also noted that his bail has been rejected and that action should be taken against him, which is why it ordered him to surrender or face arrest by tomorrow.”
Voting for all 90 Assembly constituencies in Haryana will take place on October 5 from 7 am to 6 pm. In 2023, the ED investigated Chhoker and his son, Sikandar Singh Chhoker, after an FIR by Gurugram police alleged that both were involved in a real estate fraud. Sikandar Singh Chhoker was arrested by the ED in March 2024 for allegedly siphoning hundreds of crores of rupees and defrauding home buyers by booking fake construction expenditures in group entities.
Doubts Revealed
Court -: A court is a place where judges make decisions about the law and what should happen to people who might have broken it.
Congress MLA -: Congress MLA stands for a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Congress party, which is a political party in India.
Dharam Singh Chhoker -: Dharam Singh Chhoker is a politician from the Congress party who is currently in trouble with the law.
Money Laundering -: Money laundering is when people try to hide money they got illegally by making it look like it came from a legal source.
Punjab and Haryana High Court -: This is a big court that makes important legal decisions for the states of Punjab and Haryana in India.
Directorate of Enforcement (ED) -: The ED is a government agency in India that investigates financial crimes like money laundering.
Anticipatory Bail -: Anticipatory bail is when someone asks a court to let them stay free while they wait for their trial, even if they might be arrested.
Samalkha constituency -: A constituency is an area that elects a representative to the government. Samalkha is one such area in Haryana.
Assembly constituencies -: These are areas that each elect one person to the state’s legislative assembly, which makes laws for the state.
