The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to widen its crackdown in the high-profile money laundering case linked to the alleged fraudulent securing of Change of Land Use (CLU) permissions for the Jattvibetech City project in New Chandigarh, with arrests of senior GMADA and Town and Country Planning Department officials expected in the coming days.The latest developments come after the ED arrested Ajay Sehgal, a jeweller-turned-real estate developer and promoter of the Indian Cooperative House Building Society, on Friday night in connection with the multi-crore case involving alleged forgery of landowners’ consent letters to obtain CLU approvals for the mega housing project.Highly placed sources said the agency is now closely examining the role of several senior bureaucrats, including officials in the Housing and Urban Development Department, the Director, Town and Country Planning, the Chief Town Planner and other functionaries linked to the approval process.Investigators suspect that officials may have facilitated irregularities in granting and subsequently protecting projects facing serious violations under the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act (PRTPD Act) and the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act (PAPRA), 1995.Sehgal, considered well-connected in political and bureaucratic circles, has been active in the Chandigarh-Mohali-New Chandigarh real estate belt and is associated with projects such as Jattvibetech City, La Canela and District 7. Sources said the ED probe has also brought under scrutiny the alleged role of influential political figures across regimes, including a senior functionary linked to the present ruling dispensation.According to officials, the ED is probing more than a dozen real estate projects where authorities allegedly revoked only partial CLUs under Section 85 of the PRTPD Act instead of initiating stricter punitive proceedings under Section 90. Investigators suspect this was deliberately done to allow builders to liquidate their remaining inventory and protect commercial interests.The agency is also examining why no FIRs were registered under PAPRA despite alleged large-scale violations in several projects.Sources further revealed that Sehgal had moved a petition seeking quashing of a 2022 FIR registered at Mullanpur police station under IPC Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 472 and 120-B related to cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy in the Jattvibetech matter. Officials said had the FIR been quashed, the ED’s money laundering investigation could have suffered a major setback since the predicate offence forms the basis of the PMLA proceedings.Meanwhile, bureaucratic circles remain abuzz over reports that certain senior Punjab Police officials allegedly pushed for the quashing of the FIR, with investigators suspecting that interests of influential politicians and bureaucrats were intertwined with the case.With Sehgal now in custody, sources indicated that the ED is preparing for the next phase of action, which could see “many big fish” from the bureaucracy and political establishment coming under direct heat.