Ranchi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday claimed to have recovered “unaccounted cash” to the tune of Rs 25 crore from the residence of a domestic help allegedly linked to Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam’s Personal Secretary Sanjiv Lal.
A media report said the “counting of cash is still going on” at the residence of the domestic worker, identified as Jahangir Alam, at Sayed Residency near Ranchi Hill under Sukhdeonagar police station area in the heart of the Jharkhand capital.
Videos of raids showed wads of currency notes in a room allegedly belonging to the domestic help, people familiar with the development said.
The recovery took place after a raid was conducted simultaneously at nine locations in Ranchi in connection with a money laundering case involving suspended Jharkhand Chief Engineer Virendra Ram, who was arrested in February 2023 for allegedly amassing wealth worth Rs 100 crore through “cuts” from contractors appointed for implementation of government schemes under the Rural Development Department, the report said.
The 9 locations also include the residence of Road Construction Department Engineer Vikas Kumar at SAIL City while other places are in Bariatu, Boreya and Morabadi. Some of the locations are linked to politicians and state officials, the report revealed.
After Ram’s arrest last year, ED had informed a court in Ranchi that a percentage of commission collected by the former chief engineer was distributed in a “mechanised manner” to “senior” bureaucrats and politicians of the state.
“Following the arrest of Ram on February 23 last year, on June 25 the same year, ED had arrested three persons — Neeraj Mittal and Ram Prakash Bhatia from Delhi in connection with illegal transactions of Rs 121 crore in the case related to Ram, and a third identified as Tara Chand,” another report said.
“Ram played a pivotal role in managing tenders and allocation of work to private entities and the percentage of commission is distributed in a mechanised manner to higher ups of government, including highly placed bureaucrats and politicians. Further, during investigation, names of senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged which are being investigated by ED,” the report said.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nishikant Dubey posted on his X account the video of cash recovered by ED on Monday, and said, “More than 30 crore rupees and counting continues… Today, ED took a big action against Sanjeev Lal, Personal Secretary of Congress Legislative Party leader and Jharkhand government’s corruption king Hemant Government Minister Alamgir Alam.”
“Corruption is not ending in Jharkhand. This money during elections indicates that there is a plan to spend this money in the elections. The Election Commission should take action on this,” said Jharkhand BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdev.
