Admin
07 May 2024
Consider the application submitted by the Enforcement Directorate seeking remand of two accused Sanjiv Lal and the officer’s domestic help who were arrested last night.
They are associates of Jharkhand Congress Minister Alamgir Alam. First is his personal secretary (PS) and the second one is officer’s domestic help. They were arrested following raids conducted at various premises on Monday which led to the seizure of around Rs 34.50 crore in cash, sources in the agency confirmed.
In its application submitted to the PMLA court, ED says,”It is ascertained that Sanjeev Lal takes care of the collection of commission on behalf of some influential persons and plays a pivotal role in managing the tenders and collection of commission from engineers. Also, the said percentage of commission is distributed in a mechanised manner to higher ups of government.
Further, during the investigation, names of senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged which are being investigated…several officials from top to bottom of Rural Development Department are involved in this nexus and the huge payments were usually received in cash which were later laundered, which needs to be unearthed.”
The case is linked to the arrested Water Resources Department engineer Veerendra Ram. ED said that Ram was arrested on February 23 when he was on deputation as chief engineer to the Rural Works Department and Rural Development Department.
The ED claimed that Ram allegedly used to collect commissions in allocation of tender and execution of work and a fixed share of 1.5 percent was distributed among his seniors and politicians.
“We arrested the PS Sanjiv Lal and his house help Jahangir Alam late on Monday night. We will be enquiring about the source of funds. We have also seized certain incriminating documents such as a list of transfer posting requests and the ED’s letter last year to the chief secretary asking for action against Virendra Ram. We are analysing the documents,” a source with the central agency told the court during hearing.
The searches are linked to a money laundering case against former chief engineer Virendra Kumar Ram of the state Rural Development Department. He was arrested by the ED last year.
