The Mohali GMADA probe took a political turn this week as ED teams searched AAP leader Satyendar Jain and a housing minister's relative, ahead of Punjab's upcoming assembly elections next year.
Beyond its search of GMADA headquarters, the Enforcement Directorate this week searched the Sector 39, Chandigarh residence of Satyendar Jain, the Aam Aadmi Party's co-incharge for Punjab affairs, and separately the Sahnewal residence of a nephew of Punjab's own Housing Minister, Hardeep Singh Mundian, per The Tribune. Both searches sit alongside the GMADA office raid and the search of former Chief Administrator Rajiv Gupta's Chandigarh residence, making this what The Tribune describes as one of the longest search-and-surveillance operations conducted in the state so far this cycle.
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The Tribune explicitly frames this as unfolding in a "poll-bound state," a reference to Punjab's approaching assembly elections. A federal investigation reaching into the ruling party's own political ranks and a sitting minister's family, while state elections loom, adds a dimension to this story that goes beyond the underlying land-allotment allegations themselves. Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon has already used the probe to attack the state's AAP government, according to IANS, calling out what he described as corruption within GMADA.
It's confirmed, across The Tribune and other outlets, that both residences were searched as part of this operation. What's not yet established publicly is any specific allegation against either Jain or the minister's relative individually, the reporting so far describes their premises being searched as part of the wider GMADA probe, not that either has been named an accused. That distinction matters and shouldn't be blurred.
