Responding to her petition, the apex court today granted interim bail to suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal.

She is likely to come out of jail soon.

Singhal, who was arrested and jailed on charges of money laundering slapped on her by the Enforcement Directorate, has been in jail after she was arrested on June 27, 2022.

She, who was the secretary of the Jharkhand Mining Department, is currently lodged in Birsa Amundsen jail and is under judicial custody.

The ED’s investigation against Pooja Singhal and others pertains to a money laundering case in which the former junior engineer in the state government of Jharkhand, Ram Binod Prasad Sinha, was arrested from West Bengal after he was booked by the agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2012.

Sinha was accused of defrauding public money and investing it in his own name as well as in the name of his family members between April 1, 2008, and March 21, 2011.

During ED raids on Pooja Singhal’s residence and other locations, Rs 19 crore in cash was seized. Singhal was on the radar of the financial probe agency for misappropriation of MNREGA funds( Rs 18 crore)when she was posted in Khunti between 3009-20. As many as 26 FIRs were lodged.

Her bail petition was rejected by the district and Jharkhand High Court. However, the SC granted her interim bail on medical ground.