RANCHI: On Monday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) recovered 35.23 crore cash from the residence of Jahangir Alam, the domestic help of Sanjiv Lal, who is the Personal Secretary to the Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam.
Sanjiv Lal and Jahangir Alam were arrested late in the night under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following interrogation and are likely to be produced before the court on Tuesday.
ED conducted raids at multiple locations in Ranchi linked to former Rural Development Department Chief Engineer Virendra Ram, who is under judicial custody after being arrested by ED in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in implementing several welfare schemes in Jharkhand.
During the raid, Rs 31.20 crore was recovered from the flat of Jahangir Alam and Rs 2.93 crore was recovered from the residence of builder Munna Singh, said to be a close associate of Sanjiv Lal.
According to ED sources, the sorting machines arranged by the Enforcement Directorate to count the huge pile of cash recovered from the house of Jahangir Alam are said to be heating up and stopped working.
“As of now, more than Rs 30 crore in cash along with certain ‘incriminating’ documents has been recovered from the possession of the domestic help of Sanjiv Lal, who has been a personal secretary to Alam since he took charge as Cabinet minister in Jharkhand,” said the ED sources. They said the cash recovered by ED in the bundles of Rs 500 and Rs 200 notes.
Alamgir Alam, however, has denied any connection with the recovered cash alleging that the raids were timed to be conducted ahead of the arrival of Rahul Gandhi in Jharkhand. Rahul is scheduled to visit Jharkhand on Tuesday to kick off his election campaign in the state.
“Sanjiv Lal is a government official and has also served BJP ministers before being appointed his PS to me. Let the ED come to any conclusion first; then only I can say anything in this regard,” said the minister.
Prime Minister Modi taking a jibe at the JMM-led Champai Soren Government said that his huge piles of cash are being recovered from Jharkhand. “Now tell me whether they will curse Modi or not, if I stop their illegal source of income,” said Modi.
Jharkhand BJP Chief Babulal Marandi on the other hand demanded immediate removal of the minister from his post after huge cash haul from the domestic help of his personal secretary. Marandi also alleged that a letter written by ED to the Chief Secretary alerting him about the rampant corruption in the Rural Development Department and asking to get the matter investigated was also recovered along with the huge pile of cash during the ED raid.
“Look at the shamelessness of these corrupt ministers and officials in Jharkhand; the business of acquiring immense illegal wealth continued by suppressing the letter on the basis of which the action was to be taken. Firstly, it is corruption and secondly, such a confidential letter getting leaked and reaching to the residence of a domestic help is really a very sensitive matter,” said Marandi through his X handle.
CM Champai ji should immediately register an FIR in this regard and get the matter investigated by CBI, he added. According to ED sources, the cash was recovered from two locations of the household staff, said to be taken on rent or purchased by Sanjiv Lal.
Reportedly, ED conducted raids at 9 locations in Ranchi, which also includes the residence of Vikas Kumar, engineer at SAIL City working in road construction department. Apart from that, raids were also conducted at the locations of Minister Alamgir Alam's PS’s household help Jahangir Alam and Munna Singh, said to be very close to Sanjiv Lal.
Earlier, on February 22, 2023, ED raided a total of 24 locations of Rural Development Department Chief Engineer Virendra Ram. During the raid assets worth Rs 100 crore were recovered. Jewelry worth Rs 1.50 crore and cash amount of nearly Rs 30 lakh was also recovered during the raid.
Old pre-demonetized notes worth Rs 9.46 lakh and several objectionable documents were also recovered from the hideout of his associate Mukesh Mittal, a Chartered Accountant. ED had registered a bribery case against the Rural Development Department engineer at Jamshedpur monitoring station as ECIR for investigation, following which this action was taken.
