International money trail ; Three hotels in Dubai, 167 acres in Punjab foreign assets put family, aides under scanner
Chandigarh, October 30, 2025 (Bharat Khabarnama Bureau) – The high-profile corruption case involving suspended Punjab Deputy Inspector-General, Ropar Range, Harcharan Singh Bhullar has taken a fresh turn as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered another case for amassing huge wealth against him and is likely to seek his custody to interrogate him in connection with the disproportionate assets (DA) case and his property purchases abroad, including in Dubai and Canada. He will be produced before the special CBI court in Chandigarh as his judicial remand ends tomorrow.
According to sources, Bhullar had for several years been secretly running a hotel business in Dubai where he reportedly took three hotels on lease, managed by his nephew. The nephew, who holds golden visa in Dubai, is said to have been transferring monthly earnings from these hotels to Bhullar through informal channels likely to be hawala route. Officials believe the Dubai ventures and other overseas holdings could be linked to money siphoned off through corrupt means.
Sources revealed that Bhullar had purchased multiple properties not only in the names of his immediate family members but also in those of close relatives whose total valuation runs into several crores. Documents examined so far by the CBI suggest that he recently purchased 12 acres of agricultural land in Bathinda, paying Rs 55 lakh in cash just about two months before his arrest. The agency suspects that power-of-attorney transfers were used to conceal ownership and several of these transactions have links to Una district of Himachal Pradesh where some related land documents have been recovered.
It reported that CBI has so far traced documents for 167 acres of land spread across different parts of Punjab. Some properties are registered in the names of Bhullar, his wife, son and daughter while others are in the names of his relatives, allegedly to hide his actual wealth. Investigators have seized multiple power-of-attorney papers and registration deeds from his home which indicate that benami transactions were executed through trusted family members.
The CBI is also scrutinising Bhullar’s foreign investments including flats and villas purchased in Dubai and Canada after tracing relevant property documents during searches at his residences. The agency has now turned its attention towards verifying the income sources of Bhullar’s family members who are suspected of having acted as conduits for laundering illicit funds.
Meanwhile, in a parallel development, Bhullar’s alleged middleman, Krishanu Sharda, was remanded to nine days of police custody by the special CBI court on Wednesday. Sharda’s diary, recovered during earlier raids, is being examined for potential references to financial transactions and communications with senior IAS and IPS officers, as well as political figures. Investigators believe the diary could contain crucial evidence about the alleged network that facilitated the transfer of bribe money and concealment of wealth.
Bhullar, a 2007-batch IPS officer, was arrested by the CBI on October 16 for allegedly demanding an Rs 8 lakh bribe from Mandi Gobindgarh-based scrap dealer Akash Batta, with Sharda acting as the conduit. He was later placed under suspension on October 18 by the Punjab government under the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules.
With the recovery of Rs 7.5 crore in cash, 2.5 kg of gold, 26 luxury watches, multiple arms, multiple bank accounts and more than 50 property papers during raids, and with overseas transactions now surfacing, the Bhullar case has expanded into one of the most complex financial and corruption investigations in Punjab’s recent administrative history.
It is learned that CBI would likely to press for Bhullar’s further custodial interrogation stressing that it is essential to unravel the international money trail and identify those who helped him conceal assets through benami deals and foreign ventures. The coming court hearing is likely to set the tone for the next phase of the probe, as the agency moves toward linking his illicit earnings to offshore investments and relatives’ property holdings.
Punishment :
If found guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act, particularly Section 13(1)(b) read with Section 13(2), Bhullar could face a minimum of four years and up to ten years of imprisonment along with a heavy fine. These provisions apply when a public servant is found to possess assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Additionally, under Section 61(62) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), anyone convicted of criminal conspiracy may face punishment ranging from two years’ imprisonment to life sentence.
