The Enforcement Directorate searched seven premises linked to Aam Aadmi Party Moga MLA Dr Amandeep Kaur Arora and her family on Wednesday as part of a money-laundering investigation into alleged fraudulent mutation of government land and wrongful disbursement of compensation in Punjab’s Moga district.
The searches began in the early hours and covered Arora’s flat at Icon Heights on the Moga-Ludhiana road, her camp office-cum-residence on Dosanjh Road, and properties associated with family members, associates and other individuals, according to the Times of India report. A de-addiction hospital linked to her husband, Dr Rakesh Arora, was also searched.
ED teams were accompanied by armed personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force. The agency’s action stems from a Punjab Police FIR registered in June 2024 concerning alleged fraudulent mutation of government land acquired for National Highway 754A and the alleged wrongful release of compensation in Moga district.
The case places land records and highway acquisition payments at the centre of the investigation. Government land acquired for a public road project is ordinarily recorded through official mutation processes, while compensation is disbursed to eligible claimants or rights holders under the applicable acquisition procedure. The allegations under investigation relate to the claimed misuse of those processes and possible misappropriation of public funds, officials were cited as saying.
The report did not specify the total amount of compensation allegedly disbursed, the number of land parcels involved, or the precise role attributed to each person whose premises were searched. It also did not state whether any arrests had been made or whether the searches had resulted in the seizure of documents or electronic records.
Arora is a doctor and the state president of the AAP women’s wing. She was recently renominated from Moga in the party’s first list of 40 candidates for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections. Her political position has brought the searches into a wider electoral context, although the investigation described in the report concerns alleged land mutation and compensation irregularities.
AAP workers gathered outside Arora’s residence during the searches and raised slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party. They alleged that the action was politically motivated and claimed that central agencies were being used to harass and defame AAP legislators. These allegations were presented as the party workers’ response to the searches and do not establish the outcome of the investigation.
The searches were continuing when the report was filed. Further details on the documents examined, the financial transactions under scrutiny and any subsequent action by the Enforcement Directorate or Punjab authorities were not available in the supplied report.
