K. D.

Singh (politician)

K. D. Singh (politician)
Kanwar Deep Singh

Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha Incumbent Assumed office July 2010 Personal details Born Kanwardeep Singh 21 August 1961 Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab

Political party All India Trinamool Congress Spouse(s) Religion Website Harpreet Kaur Sikhism K D Singh [1] ,KDSinghBlog [2]

Kanwar Deep Singh (born 21 August 1961), also known as K. D. Singh, is an Indian businessman turned politician and Member of Parliament (MP), Rajya Sabha. He is also the president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and the Hockey Association of Haryana. Singh's political and business career has been marred by various controversies.

Early life and business

Singh was born on 21 August 1961. He started his business in 1988 under the banner of Turbo Industries. His first factory in Chandigarh produced wire mesh and link fencing. The name was changed to Alchemist in 2004. The Alchemist Group has a presence in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, food-processing, real estate, infrastructure and tea estates, possessing well-known retail brands like Republic of Chicken. He stepped down from his position as Chairman of the Alchemist Group in 2012 to devote his time to political and social causes. Currently, he is the Chairman Emeritus of the Alchemist Group, while his Karan Deep Singh now chairs the Group. K.D. Singh owns majority stake in Anant Media Private Limited, which publishes Tehelka magazine, one of Indias leading investigative weeklies.[3] In March 2013, Tehelka reported that Punjabis in the northern state of Haryana want Singh as their chief minister. He was conferred a Doctorate in Business Administration (Honoris Causa) by the Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (U.K.).

K. D. Singh (politician)

Political career
In 2010, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) nominated him to the Rajya Sabha. Only few months later, he became a member of the All India Trinamool Congress and was made the party in-charge of northern India (Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Chandigarh).

Cash-for-votes scam in the Jharkhand biennial Rajya Sabha elections in June 2010
Singh is alleged to have paid his way into the upper house of Parliament. An IBN-Cobrapost investigation found that MLAs from various political parties in Jharkhand take money to vote for a particular candidate during elections. The investigation relates to the election of Kanwar Deep Singh to the Rajya Sabha on a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ticket. In November 2010, K.D. Singh left the JMM to join the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in West Bengal. Tek Lal Mahto is a MLA belonging to JMM said, KD Singh has been spending only in one direction- when the reporter says Singh is likely to win as he has been spending so much money. Six legislators were caught on camera apparently negotiating for money to sell their votes. The sting operation showed the MLAs purportedly demanding Rs 50 lakh to Rs 2 crore.

Controversies
In February 2009, Income Tax (I-T) raided at 11 premises of the Alchemist Group across India. Singh had to surrendered an unaccounted income of Rs.22 crores. KD Singh was intercepted on March 2011 at IGI Airport, Delhi by airport security for carrying a "large sum of cash" on a flight to poll-bound Assam. Taking a "serious note" of it, the Election Commission of India sent a notice to TMC. In 2011, the Intelligence Wing of the Union Home Ministry, on details provided by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE), investigated the investments made by Singh's Alchemist Limited in companies such as Usher Agro, Sel Manufacturing, Dhanus Tech, Pyramid Saimira and Resurgere Mines. The charge was that Alchemist may have artificially rigged the share prices of these companies to make quick profits. The investigators are also probing two Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) which acquired a stake in Alchemist Realty Limited, one of the group's 16 companies. In 2012, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office began a probe into the group after the Registrar of Companies, a national regulatory agency, noted that one of its outfits had raised money from the public by offering various investments it probably could not honor. Alchemist Infra Reality promised to allot residential plots to depositors even though, according to the Registrar of Companies, the company does not have any land assets. In May 2013, three Alchemist 'group' companies were under the corporate affairs ministry's scanner for their fund-raising activities, which allegedly ranged from accepting deposits against fictitious property certificates to issuing preference shares to investors without the regulator's approval. The company and its five directors have also been barred from the securities market till the time all its schemes are wound up and the money is refunded to investors. In July 2013, the Securities Appellate Tribunal gave 18 month's time to Alchemist Infra Realty Ltd for complying with Sebi orders that had asked the company to refund an estimated Rs 1,000 crore collected from public through unauthorised 'collective investment schemes' (CIS). The company had collected about Rs 1,000 crore from about 1.5 million investors. He has been allegedly involved in a benami deal in Himachal Pradesh where he allegedly used a front-man to buy the Himalayan International School in Shimla and wanted to close it down to start an uber luxury resort in its place.

K. D. Singh (politician)

Indian Hockey Federation

On 29 July 2013, the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) issued a media release announcing Dr. Singh's elevation from his post of Vice President to that of President. Singh's Alchemist group was the sponsor of the Federation Cup hockey tournament organised by the IHF in 2013.

Positions Held
President, Indian Hockey Federation; July 2013 Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha); July 2010

References
[1] http:/ / www. kdsingh. co. in/ [2] http:/ / www. kdsinghblog. wordpress. com/ [3] http:/ / latitude. blogs. nytimes. com/ 2013/ 05/ 15/ in-india-business-politics-and-media-collude-against-small-investors/ ?_r=0

External links
Official Blog Site (http://kdsinghblog.wordpress.com)

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

K. D. Singh (politician) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=581806795 Contributors: Anonymous 2108, Auric, Bearcat, Bgwhite, CommonsDelinker, GB fan, January, JohnCD, LindsayH, Msec109, Waacstats, 4 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:Kanwardeep Singh.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Kanwardeep_Singh.JPG License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.0 Contributors: Anonymous 2108, FlickreviewR, Leoboudv, Roland zh, Stefan4, Trelio

License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/