Congress leader and Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam may skip the summon served to him by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in a money laundering case. 

Insiders say Alamgir Alam is gearing up to evade the summon on health grounds or his “ busy schedule” ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. 

However, the ED has summoned him at his Ranchi office on May 14, official sources said Sunday. Alam, 70, has been asked to depose for recording his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). 

The money laundering investigation pertains to alleged irregularities in the State Rural Development Department. 

The total seizure of cash by the ED in the case has been recorded at around ₹36.75 crore as the agency had seized about ₹3 crore from another location that included ₹10.05 lakh from his personal Secretary Sanjeev Lal's place. ₹1.50 crore was also seized from a contractor's premises on Tuesday. 

Alam has sought to keep himself away from the seizure of huge funds from the premises of Lal. Talking to reporters, the Minister had said that Lal had earlier served with other Ministers of the State government too. 

Earlier, in its remand papers submitted in court to seek the custody of Lal and Jahangir Alam for interrogation, the ED had said,

"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 the government."