ED Raids AAP Ministers; Chadha Gets Z-plus Security

April

2026

After Aam Aadmi Party Member of Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament, RS) Ashok Kumar Mittal took over as party's Deputy Leader in RS from Raghav Chadha, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided his properties on 15 Apr. Along with his brothers Ramesh and Naresh, Mittal is owner of the Lovely Group. The Group owns Lovely Sweets, Lovely Professional University, and automotive dealerships in Jalandhar. The ED action is related to investigation into alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). On 17 Apr, ED searched the house and other properties of AAP leader and Panjab Cabinet minister Sanjeev Arora in Ludhiana for 'illegal change of land use and other irregularities'. This is ED’s second raid on Arora’s properties by his company M/S Hampton Sky Realty Limited that has business interests in real estate, commercial and industrial housing, retail, hospitality, clothing, and medical projects. The previous raid was conducted on 7 Oct 2024 on the same pretext. Arora was nominated to the RS from Panjab in 2022, but resigned from the Upper House in 2025 to contest the by-poll from the upscale Ludhiana West constituency following the death of AAP Member of Legislative Assembly Gurpreet Gogi. Arora won and was eventually appointed to the state Cabinet and given the portfolios of industry and commerce, local bodies, and power. A real estate baron, Arora is the richest politician in Panjab, cutting across party lines, with individual assets worth USD 30M. Panjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led union for the ED raid. He said, 'They always target non-BJP states. If someone stoops in front of them, then all is good. This is not democracy. This is a dictatorship.' Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu said Arora had misused the land allotted for industrial development on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh road. He alleged Arora had used the land to construct residential flats for private gain and said Chadha could turn a witness in the matter. Simultaneously, AAP withdrew Chadha's Z-plus category security cover but the BJP-led union government has reinstated it (earlier coverage).