ED Letter On Punjab CMO Officials: Why Police Sat On It, And The CBI Probe

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: The ED alleged cash, WhatsApp chats and travel payments tied to the CM’s OSD. Punjab police said the material was illegible. The High Court has ordered a CBI probe.

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, October 5

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday moved the investigation into alleged corruption linked to the Chief Minister’s Office to the CBI, holding that the state police should have registered an FIR on material the Enforcement Directorate had shared under Section 66(2) of the PMLA.

But what exactly the material and the letter shared by the ED contain that’s now at the centre of discussion.

ALSO: CBI FIR Against Punjab CM OSD: Rajbir Ghuman And 5 Others Booked, Raids At 8 Places

ALSO: HC hands ED-referred Punjab corruption letters to CBI, faults state police

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: What ED alleges

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: The Enforcement Directorate’s letter to the Punjab DGP, dated 30 July 2026 and sent under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, is a reference asking the police to register an FIR. It follows searches conducted between 7 and 10 May 2026 in an ECIR investigation into Punjab-based Ajay Sehgal and associates, a housing society the agency says facilitated change-of-land-use approvals. The searches were carried out on the premises of Sehgal, Nitin Gohal, Suresh Kumar Bajaj and others.

According to the ED’s own reply to the High Court, the searches “recovered incriminating information/documents.” The agency says Gohal was regularly influencing transfers and postings, collecting money from interested persons, and coordinating with others. It says proceeds of crime, “to the tune of crores” in cash, land and kind, were collected by Gohal in coordination with Bir Devinder, Rajbir Ghuman and Jitin Gohal alias Raja. It puts the cash recovered from Gohal at Rs 20.98 lakh.

ALSO: CBI FIR Against Punjab CM OSD: Rajbir Ghuman And 5 Others Booked, Raids At 8 Places

‘Chat evidence’ – core of the letter

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: The ED’s chat evidence is the core of the letter. It cites 21 instances of interference in transfers and postings across government departments, drawn from WhatsApp chats between 20 September 2023 and 18 March 2026. The departments named include the police, Punjab Civil Services, food and civil supplies, Markfed and GMADA.

It cites 11 chats on Gohal’s involvement in policy formulation, amendments to departmental rules, administrative approvals, tender conditions and licensing. It cites seven on procuring an arms licence, six on land transactions and change-of-land-use matters, four on unauthorised access to confidential government information, and 11 on payments, kickbacks and other benefits received in return for official favours.

Some chats are described in more detail. The ED says a WhatsApp message from a horticulture director, Shailendra K, reading that a certain payment had been paid and the rest would follow, shows a payment. It says Gohal installed Jitin Gohal in the Chief Minister’s office through Dr Romi Raja Mahajan and Ghuman, relying on a chat dated 23 January 2026. It says the chats show confidential draft orders and postings information being shared before they entered the public domain, and that Gohal was involved in conditions for tenders, including the empanelment of manufacturers for fortified rice kernels and tendering at Markfed.

The travel and property strands are also set out. The ED says Gohal paid for air tickets and hotel stays for Ghuman and Bir Devinder in cash, citing a travel agency’s ledger. It says a plot in Phase 7, Mohali, D-156, was bought with a cash component above the sale-deed price, and that no unearned increase was charged by the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation on the transfer. It refers to payments through a hawala note number from one Karan Bhushan. The letter also alleges violations of the Official Secrets Act and the Prevention of Corruption Act. It has 26 annexures and runs to more than 150 pages.

What Gohal told the ED

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: Gohal’s replies to the ED’s questions are recorded in the order, and they form the other half of the account. He said he had been a friend of Ghuman’s for 22 years, that officials and MLAs sent him transfer requests because of that friendship, and that he only did “data entry type work,” preparing lists in Excel and forwarding them.

He said he had received a foodgrain policy presentation through his links with officers, and that he had shared it with a foodgrain businessman so that the businessman could suggest changes. He said he could not recall the horticulture director’s chat. He said travel bookings were made for family and associates, and that some passengers paid the vendor directly. He said he would provide ledger details and cash documents within days. The order does not record that he did.

What Punjab Police did

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: The Punjab Bureau of Investigation’s own note, placed before the court, sets out the police sequence. The ED letter was received in the DGP’s office and marked to the bureau on 3 August. On 5 August the bureau discussed it with its law officers, and on 6 August it examined the annexures. On 8 August it considered whether WhatsApp screenshots could be relied on without compliance with Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Supreme Court’s judgment in Lalita Kumari, which requires FIRs in cognizable cases.

Between 11 and 27 August the bureau issued notices to Gohal, Jitin Gohal, Romi Mahajan, R.S. Dhaliwal of CGC University, Shailendra Kaur of the environment directorate and others named in the chats. Most sought time. It wrote to 29 departments for information and met the General Administration secretary.  

On 27 August the bureau flagged discrepancies in the ED material. On 28 August it asked for legible copies and for an ED officer to attend with the full record. No ED official attended on 1 September. The ED emailed material on 1, 2 and 7 September, and a link it sent on 2 September did not open for the bureau. The bureau constituted a forensic committee on 2 September, which reported on chain of custody on 9 September.

The state’s argument, in its counsel’s submissions, is that the documents are not legible, that the identity of participants in several chats cannot be established, and that electronic records must meet the admissibility conditions of Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam. It says it is entitled to time to verify the material before acting. The note is not backed by an affidavit, and the state filed no written statement on the merits.

What the court found

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: The Chief Justice, Ashwani Kumar Mishra, and Justice Rohit Kapoor did not accept that account as sufficient. They said the information shared by the ED “prima facie conveys commissioning of cognizable offence in high public office.” They said that where the police receive information disclosing a cognizable offence, registration of an FIR follows, and that whether the information is genuine or credible is a question for investigation.

They pointed out that the police had issued notices to people named in the same documents for weeks before asking for legible copies. They said two months had passed since the letter without an FIR, and that the state’s use of preliminary inquiry was “not entirely sans merit” as a concern.

The court was equally clear about what it had not done. “Merits of the allegation can only be gone into at the stage of investigation/trial,” it said, and it expressed no opinion on whether the allegations were true. It ordered the CBI to register an FIR and report within two months, and directed the state and police to cooperate. The matter is listed for a status report on 7 December 2026.

The petitioner and the state’s objections

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: The petition was filed by Nikhil Saraf, a Chandigarh advocate and farm-stay operator. The state challenged his standing, argued he had concealed his commercial interests, and pointed to two earlier PILs of his that had been dismissed. The court found him a public-spirited petitioner and held the earlier dismissals case-specific. It did not rule on the state’s objections to his farm-stay business.

It did record that a demolition notice issued on 2 September, nearly two years after a 2024 show-cause notice that had not been acted on, raised doubts about timing, and that it expressed no view on the legality of the construction.

Political reaction

ED Letter on Punjab CMO: Leader of Opposition Pratap Singh Bajwa welcomed the order and said those who had “looted” the state must be punished. BJP leader Tikshan Sud said the ED’s letters brought the matter under formal investigation. Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the order exposed the Chief Minister’s claims of honesty. These are political statements, not findings. AAP leader Aman Arora said he won’t comment on the verdict as it’s a judicial order and let the CBI probe as it’s been told to. 

ALSO: HC hands ED-referred Punjab corruption letters to CBI, faults state police

ALSO: Answer The Chats, Majithia Renews Onslaught on CM’s OSD Rajbir Ghuman Over Alleged Deals

Follow North Desk on WhatsApp for the latest from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb7ccdxJENy2H87DBG3E