RANCHI: Suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal, who was in jail for the last 28 months in a money laundering case linked to MGNREGA scam, was granted bail by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court in Ranchi on Saturday.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), after an interrogation for over 15 hours, had arrested the then mining secretary Pooja Singhal on May 11, 2022 in a money laundering case linked to alleged embezzlement of MGNREGA funds and other charges.
The Special PMLA Court has granted bail to Singhal on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh each. Besides that, she will have to submit her passport in the court. Earlier on April 29, 2024, the Supreme Court had dismissed her plea seeking bail in a money laundering matter, observing it is an "extraordinary case". A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta refused to interfere with the Jharkhand High Court order denying her bail.
The 2000-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer was arrested on the second day of the questioning being done by the ED officials.
According to ED, Rs 1.43 crore more than the known sources of her income were recovered from the bank accounts of Pooja Singhal while she was Deputy Commissioner in Khunti, Palamu and Chatra.
The ED also claimed that Singhal purchased as many as 13 insurance policies by paying a premium of Rs 80.81 lakh and closed them before completion of their tenure and got Rs 84.64 lakh against it.
The ED also informed that Singhal transferred Rs 16.57 lakh to the three bank accounts related to CA Suman Kumar.
The ED is said to have gathered sufficient primary evidence to suggest that she is in close connection with CA Sunman Kumar and had financial transactions with him. Before her arrest, ED had conducted raids at several locations, including that of Pooja Singhal, in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged embezzlement of over Rs 18 crore MGNREGA funds in Khunti district during 2008-2011.
The raids were conducted at a total of 18 locations including Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, NCR as well as Ranchi, Khunti and Dhanbad in Jharkhand.
Singhal, as Chatra Deputy Commissioner, had also been accused of paying Rs 6 crore in advance to the two NGOs – Welfare Point and Prerna Niketan for musli farming, which, actually was never done. In addition to that, while being Deputy Commissioner in Palamu, she was charged of transferring 83 acres of forest land to a private company for mining, a matter which is related to Kathautia Coal Mines.
On February 10, 2023, the top court had granted Singhal interim bail for two months to enable her to take care of her ailing daughter. Singhal has been in custody since May 11, 2022 after raids were conducted at properties linked to her in connection with the money laundering case.
