The Punjab Government and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have locked horns over the registration of an FIR in an alleged “cash-for-transfer and land fraud case”.The agency accused the Punjab Police of stalling action despite “detailed evidence having been shared”, while AAP state president Aman Arora said on Wednesday the FIR could not be registered till the central enforcement agency shared proper evidence with the police.In response to the third letter written by ED sleuths to the police on August 31, Arora said the case was nothing more than a political vilification campaign launched by the BJP-led Centre.He said, “…It uses central agencies such as the ED as its tools and mouthpiece. The central agency is acting like a tool of the BJP to defame the AAP government and its leaders. The FIR cannot be registered because the evidence it has shared is not legible,” he said, adding that the ED was sometimes naming him, sometimes his colleague Lal Chand Kataruchak and had even arrested Sanjeev Arora earlier, without any substantive cases against any of them.On the other hand, in a statement issued on Wednesday, immediately after Arora made allegations against the working of the ED, the agency said the registration of the FIR was a mandatory legal step.The agency accused the police of stalling the registration of the FIR despite “detailed evidence” having been shared by it, pointing to an alleged network involving police transfers, hawala transactions and land deals.On Tuesday, the ED, in its letter written in response to a Punjab Government’s August 28 letter, had urged that an FIR based on previously shared money laundering information be registered immediately.The letter stated that 30 days had elapsed since the initial communication and warned that this delay could result in evidence being tampered with or destroyed. The agency rejected the police request for additional preliminary inquiry reports prior to registering the case.The entire communication between the central agency and the police is based on ED search operations conducted in early May this year on the premises of Gohal, which the agency claims exposed the alleged “cash for transfer and land fraud” racket.Arora, who was also named by the ED in this case, along with Rajbir Singh Ghuman, OSD to the Punjab Chief Minister, said the government had already made its stand clear that the FIR would be registered only once the government got legible proof. “What they have sent us are letters/ snapshots, which are not legible. Give the police proper proof and the FIR will be registered. This was also conveyed to the ED on August 28, and it was asked to send the details on September 1. However, nothing was submitted. This shows its mala fide intentions,” he said.Talking about his own case, Arora said the ED had targeted his friend Gaurav Dhir, in an apparent attempt to frame him.“They (referring to the ED) have made allegations that as Housing Minister, I got the CLU and layout plans changed for the Altus project of Dhir. However, six CLUs were given to Altus between 2011 and 2022 — all during the tenures of either the Akali Dal-BJP or the Congress governments. Even the layout plans for the project were changed twice when the Akali-BJP and later the Congress were in power, and thrice during the AAP government’s tenure. These changes are legally allowed. They have even made baseless allegations that the developer sold land back to GMADA as a favour extended to him by me. There is no wrongdoing involved,” he said.He added that the premise of this case was based on two FIRs, which had already been quashed by the court.Meanwhile, the ED statement issued on Wednesday said it had formally shared the evidence with the DGP, Punjab, under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, on July 30 and August 7.According to the agency, the material revealed the alleged role of middleman Gohal in collating requests for police transfers, leaking transfer orders before signing, moving cash through hawala, arranging land deals and managing payments for travel and hotel expenses.The agency alleged that an AIG in the Punjab Police refused to accept the record from its representative, who personally went to deliver it on September 1.The record included Gohal’s statement. The ED said it was subsequently compelled to officially serve the documents through email. The ED has now sought the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, contending that the police had failed to act despite being provided specific investigative material.