Mining scam: ED arrests Haryana Congress MLA Surender Pawar

The ED arrested Surender Pawar, Congress MLA from Sonipat, and his son late Friday in a mining scam. Close to former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Pawar faces a money-laundering investigation from FIRs by Haryana Police on illegal mining of boulders, gravel, and sand in Yamunanagar despite an NGT ban. The ED is also probing fraud in the ‘e-Ravana’ scheme, an online portal launched by the Haryana government in 2020 to reduce tax evasion by streamlining royalty and tax collection in the mining sector.