The Officer Who Had It All and Is Now Answering for All of It
Bhullar’s World Keeps Shrinking, Supreme Court Shuts Bail Door
Chandigarh, April 28, 2026 (Bharat Khabarnama Bureau) : The Enforcement Directorate has registered a fresh case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against suspended Punjab Police Deputy Inspector General Harcharan Singh Bhullar and his alleged middleman Krishanu Sharda, conducting simultaneous raids at 11 locations across Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Patiala, Nabha and Jalandhar on Monday.
The agency’s teams fanned out early in the morning, targeting properties linked to Bhullar, Sharda, their associates and suspected benamidar individuals who hold assets on behalf of others with the aim of tracing proceeds of crime and identifying property acquired through illegal means. ED teams from Delhi, supported by the Jalandhar unit, carried out the coordinated operation, covering two premises in Chandigarh, five in Ludhiana district, two in Patiala, and one each in Nabha and Jalandhar.
One of the Chandigarh premises was Bhullar’s own residence in Sector 40. His parental home at Kot Kalan on Old Phagwara Road, Jalandhar belonging to his father Mehal Singh Bhullar, a former Director General of Police, Punjab, was also searched, with ED teams arriving at the gates around 7 am and quizzing family members. Among the other locations raided was the office of Bhupinder Singh Rathaur, a BC Wing leader of the Aam Aadmi Party in Machhiwara, indicating that the investigation has begun to draw in political connections as well.
Bhullar facing five criminal cases
The new enforcement case information report, or ECIR, brings the total number of criminal cases Bhullar is facing to five. It is based on two CBI FIRs, one related to a bribery trap and another to a disproportionate assets investigation and the ED is expected to eventually file a prosecution complaint under the PMLA once its probe concludes.
The five cases together present a portrait of institutional and financial wrongdoing that investigators say spans bribery, assets far beyond any legitimate income, money laundering and even the unlawful possession of liquor. The first case, registered by the CBI in October 2025, pertains to the bribery trap in which Bhullar and Sharda were arrested after a scrap dealer alleged that an Rs 8 lakh bribe was demanded through the intermediary to settle a criminal case. Sharda was caught accepting Rs 5 lakh on Bhullar’s behalf. Recorded phone conversations and WhatsApp data, along with a controlled call that purportedly captured Bhullar instructing Sharda to collect the money, formed the basis of the FIR.
The second CBI case arose from the extraordinary seizures made during the bribery investigation, which turned up Rs 7.36 crore in cash, gold and silver jewellery worth Rs 2.32 crore, 26 luxury wristwatches, high-end vehicles and property documents collectively forming the basis of a disproportionate assets case. The third case was registered independently by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau, which filed its own DA case listing a staggering portfolio of alleged unaccounted assets, including 20 commercial shops and over 50 other properties spread across Punjab and abroad.
The fourth case is Monday’s fresh ED action under the PMLA. The fifth was registered at Samrala police station under the Punjab Excise Act after the CBI found 108 bottles of liquor valued at approximately Rs 2.89 lakh at Bhullar’s farmhouse, Mehal Farms, in Bondli village, and a CBI inspector filed the complaint covering unlawful possession of intoxicants.
On the proceedings front, the CBI has urged a special court to commence day-to-day hearings in the corruption case, signalling that the agency wants the trial to move at pace rather than drift. Investigators have also claimed that assets worth over Rs 1 crore have been traced to Sharda and his wife, allegedly representing proceeds of corruption. A special CBI court has additionally allowed the prosecution to place on record a forensic voice analysis report prepared by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, a development that could prove significant once the trial is underway, given that recorded conversations form a central pillar of the prosecution’s case.
CBI widens investigations against unidentified public servants
The fresh ED action came three days after a Special CBI Court in Chandigarh allowed the agency to transfer key documents, cash, mobile phones and electronic records from the trap case to a fresh preliminary inquiry into alleged independent corruption transactions involving unidentified public servants and private individuals, a development that signals the investigation is still widening rather than drawing to a close.
Supreme Court Shuts Bail Door
Every door Bhullar has knocked on for relief has been closed. The Supreme Court on April 10 refused to grant him bail, with a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi declining to intervene. The bench observed that key witnesses are yet to be examined and that the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s earlier refusal to grant bail appeared justified. The apex court did grant him the liberty to approach the high court again if trial proceedings fail to begin within two months but that conditional window offers little immediate comfort given the ED’s latest escalation. Bhullar and Sharda have now been in judicial custody for over six months.
The Officer Who Had It All and Is Now Answering for All of It
For a senior police officer who once commanded the Ropar Range, the picture today is of a man facing five separate criminal cases across the CBI, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau, the Enforcement Directorate and the Excise Act, with central investigators combing through his family’s properties at dawn and the country’s highest court unwilling to open the gates.
