ED nets Rs 30 crore+ from help of Jharkhand minister's secretary

RANCHI: Bundles of unaccounted cash tumbled out of the closet of the domestic help of Sanjeev Lal, the personal secretary of Congress legislature party leader and Jharkhand rural development minister Alamgir Alam, on Monday as

Enforcement Directorate

raided various premises here in connection with an old corruption and

money laundering

case.
While the search operations continued late into the evening, officials estimated the seizure to be in excess of Rs 34 crore.

The seizure comes a week ahead of four-phased polling for the Lok Sabha elections in the state, starting May 13. Ranchi had, in the recent past, witnessed a major protest from JMM cadres against the “high-handed” approach of ED after the agency had arrested former CM Hemant Soren.

BJP state president Babulal Marandi accused the state govt of being hand in glove with corrupt bureaucrats and technocrats.
Marandi claimed that along with cash, ED also recovered a confidential letter that it had written to the chief secretary asking him to take action against corrupt officials of the rural development department.

“How can a confidential letter written to the CS reach the minister's PS or his aide? It could have reached the department head for taking action but now it seems the entire machinery is corrupt, and the chief minister must take immediate action,” he said.

Congress and JMM refused to comment on the development.
The ED searches began early morning at the premises of individuals linked to a former chief engineer of the rural works department, Veerendra Kumar Ram, who was arrested in Jan 2023 on corruption charges. Simultaneous raids were conducted at the residences of engineers, Alam’s personal secretary Lal and a few builders in Sail City, Garikhana, Chiraundi, Deendayal Nagar, Bariatu and PePe compound.

The biggest haul of cash was recovered from the Garikhana residence of Jehangir Alam, Lal’s aide. As news of the cash recovery broke, the minister distanced himself from it and said he had no official communication about the recovery by ED.
“I have been watching on TV that the premises from where cash was recovered is linked to my PS, Sanjeev Lal. He is a govt employee, and his services were provided to me by the department. He has been the PS to two ministers earlier,” he said.
Alam said ED should first come up with an official statement.
The search on engineers and builders are linked to a 2019 case, originally registered by the anti-corruption bureau of the state govt. ACB had raided the premises of a junior engineer, Suresh Prasad Verma, in Jamshedpur in Nov 2019 and allegedly recovered Rs 2.8 crore and registered an FIR. Once ED took over the case, it claimed that irregularities worth Rs 121 crore had taken place. ED later arrested chief engineer Ram and attached his assets worth Rs 39 crore.
Another ED team is said to have recovered around Rs 3 crore from the premises of a builder in Pepe compound while yet another team found Rs 10 lakh in cash.