Arrested Jharkhand (IAS) Mining Secretary Pooja Singhal in a money laundering case
12-May-2022
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Ranchi ; arrested Jharkhand Mining Secretary IAS Pooja Singhal in a money laundering case linked to alleged embezzlement of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds and other suspicious financial transactions.
Singhal, a 2000-batch IAS officer, was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after two consecutive days of questioning by the ED’s Ranchi zonal office.
During questioning, Singhal was “evasive” in her replies, leading to her arrest, sources said.
The ED will produce her before a local court here seeking her remand to subject her to custodial interrogation.
Singhal reached the ED’s office in the Hinoo area of Ranchi at 10:40 AM for the questioning and was arrested at 5 PM. Singhal was at the ED office for about nine hours on Tuesday where her statement was recorded under
PMLA.
The statement of her businessman husband, Abhsihek Jha, too has been recorded in the case on at least three occasions, the sources said.
This is the second arrest in this case after Suman Kumar, a chartered accountant and financial advisor allegedly linked to the couple, was held by the ED last week on May 7, a day after the agency searched their premises and some other locations in different States.
The money laundering investigation against Singhal and others relate to a case in which former Jharkhand Government junior engineer Ram Binod Prasad Sinha was arrested by the agency on June 17, 2020 from West Bengal.
He was booked under the PMLA in 2012 on the basis of State Vigilance Bureau FIRs against him.
Sinha was booked by the Vigilance Bureau under Indian Penal Code sections relating to cheating and provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly defrauding public money and investing it in his own name as well as in the name of his family members while working as junior engineer from April 1, 2008 to March 21, 2011.
The said fund was earmarked for the execution of the Government projects under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in Khunti district.
Sinha told the ED that “he paid five per cent commission (out of the defrauded funds) to the district administration”.
During the period, the ED had alleged, charges of “irregularities” were made against Singhal while she served as the deputy commissioner/district magistrate of Chatra, Khunti and Palamu between 2007 and 2013.
The agency, during the May 6 raids, seized over Rs 17 crore cash from CA Suman Kumar’s premises. The total cash seizure in this case including all locations is Rs 19.31 crore, officials had said.
