Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday asked the Centre to inform if the cases related to alleged financial offences inside Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) could be probed by the Economic Offence Wing of the CBI.
As of now, Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and Income Tax (IT) department are probing these cases.

A full bench headed by Justice Surya Kant has asked the additional solicitor general, Satya Pal Jain to inform court about this by January 17, 2018.

The bench has sought the response of Centre after Jain informed the HC that because of shortage of manpower and limited resources, the ED can only probe the issue in which material has been laready provided.

Jain also informed that as of now ED is banking on the material provided by Haryana and the investigation is pending.

Jain further informed that a total of 59 companies have been found to be registered by DSS at different locations including Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ganganagar, Ahmedabad and Bangalore and for each station, the IT department has deputed one officer to probe the irregularities. Hearing this, the bench asked Jain to respond, “Whether the financial offences of DSS can be probed by the economic offences wing of CBI, which have more expertise and more powers”.

Earlier on September 27, the HC had ordered the ED and the Income Tax department to probe the allegations regarding money laundering and unaccounted money in the functioning of the Dera Sacha Sauda Sirsa.
The HC on Wednesday also directed the civil surgeon Sirsa to inform the court about the action taken by it on the probe report which had found illegal skin hospital inside the DSS.
As per the probe, the DSS was running an illegal Skin bank and was carrying out skin transplant (allograft) in an unauthorized manner in its premises. A team of medical officers from the state’s health department had also seized a large quantity of skin illegally preserved in containers by the hospital authorities in a refrigerator.
The bench has also directed the principal secretary, department of town and country planning Haryana, and the local bodies department to file a detailed report on the nature of buildings raised inside the DSS and any permission was taken by the dera. HC has further asked both the departments to furnish the details of notice served to DSS for violation of any building or related bylaws. Court has also sought the details of any kind of exemptions granted to the DSS by these departments. Source : timesofindia