Responding to the summon issued by the Enforcement Directorate, Senior IAS officer Manish Ranjan on Tuesday appeared before its regional office in Ranchi. 

While sleuths of the central agency were questioning him about his alleged role in “transaction and exchange of bribe sums”, Manish Ranjan “looked the other way and kept mum”, it is learnt. 

“He appeared to be either mum or looked as if he is playing a smart -don’t -know game in response to most of our questions”, said a verbal report on the ED’s grilling of Manish Ranjan on May 28. 

Manish Ranjan was summoned by the ED for questioning in a money laundering case in which the agency had recently arrested Jharkhand Rural Development minister Alamgir Alam. 

Manish Ranjan had arrived at the ED office at around 11.15 am. Manish Ranjan,currently the secretary of the Land, Road and Building department,is a former secretary of the Rural Development department. 

The IAS officer had earlier been summoned to appear before the ED officials on May 24 but he had skipped the summons and had sought more time.  

The summons are linked to the ED investigation resulting in the arrest of Congress leader and state Rural Development minister Alamgir Alam, his former personal secretary Sanjeev Kumar Lal and the latter's domestic help Jahangir Alam early this month. 

The agency had claimed to have had recovered more than Rs 32 crore from a place where Jahangir Alam was residing. The total cash seizure in this case was Rs 37.5 crore. 

The probe pertains to alleged irregularities and bribes exchanged between officials including Manish Ranjan as Principal Secretary, Rural Development Department and its Minister Alamgir Alam and others from contractors working in their department.