He Execution Directorate On Monday he claimed to have recovered approximately Rs 25 crore in “unaccounted” cash and several official documents during searches at the premises of a domestic help of a secretary to Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam, official sources said.
The central agency separately seized a cache of over Rs 3 crore cash from other facilities being registered in the state as part of a money laundering probe linked to the state rural development department, sources said.
The ED has been investigating this case since last year and arrested a former chief engineer of the state rural development department.
Videos and photographs shared by sources showed agency officials emptying wads of notes from large bags at a 2BHK apartment located at Gadikhana Chowk here.
The agency used as many as eight currency note counting machines, in addition to bank staff, to determine the exact amount of currency, mainly Rs 500. Personnel of the central paramilitary forces stood guard at the building where the apartment is located.
Jahangir Alam, a domestic aide of Congress leader and personal secretary of Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam Sanjiv Lal, is alleged to reside here along with Lal, sources said.
The keys of the premises where the money was found were confiscated from Lal’s apartment, they said.
An official document written by the ED to the state chief secretary and letters of recommendation for transfer and posting were also found during searches at the premises, the source said.
Minister Alamgir Alam told PTI that “so far he had no official information in this regard.”
“I have been watching TV and it says the facilities are linked to the official PS (private secretary) provided to me by the government,” he added.
The 70-year-old minister represents Pakur seat in the Jharkhand assembly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been alleging that he is being attacked by the opposition for his action against corruption, referred to the ED seizures at his election rallies in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh on Monday.
He said the Jharkhand ED seized “heaps of cash” and wondered why such people were “close to the Congress first family”.
“They have turned the workers’ house into a pit of corruption. This is not the first time, as earlier a major seizure was also made from a parliamentarian (in Jharkhand) and it was such a big cache that even the machines got tired of it.” tell,” he said in Vemagiri.
“Why are those from whom heaps of cash were recovered close to the Congress first family? Was the seized money meant to be handed over somewhere, is it that the Congress first family created deposits of black money? The country wants to know it from Congress shehzada,” he said in an apparent mockery of Rahul Gandhi.
Modi, during the rally in Odisha, said he was being criticized for “stopping corruption and looting”.
He Congress and other opposition parties have accused the Modi government of misusing central agencies like the ED to target their leaders.
Education Department sources said they estimate the cash could amount to more than Rs 25 million, but a final figure could only be determined after counting.
Two bill-counting machines had to be replaced because they stopped working due to overheating, they said.
The images show large trunks being taken inside the place to carry the cash and deposit it in a bank branch.
The agency also seized from the floor a May 2023 official communication written by the ED’s Ranchi unit to the Jharkhand chief secretary seeking an independent probe and registration of an FIR into the “revelations” of alleged bribes received from contractors.
These alleged revelations were made by former rural works department chief engineer Veerendra Kumar Ram, who was arrested by the ED last year in this case.
Some letters of recommendation written by MLAs and other high-profile persons to Alam for favorable transfer and posting of state government officials have also been recovered from the said facilities, sources said.
A total of six premises are being searched as part of the operation, and from two premises the agency has recovered Rs 2.93 crore and Rs 10 lakh each, sources said. Some jewelery was also seized, they said.
The searches are related to a money laundering case against former rural works department chief engineer Veerendra Kumar Ram, who was arrested by the ED last year.
“Veerendra Kumar Ram, posted as chief engineer in the Rural Works Department in Ranchi, had generated proceeds of crime in the name of commissions of contractors instead of awarding tenders to them,” the agency had alleged in a statement issued last year in April after that he attached assets worth Rs 39 million of the officer.
“The proceeds of crime thus generated were used by Veerendra Kumar Ram and his family members to live a very luxurious lifestyle,” he said.
The money laundering case against Ram arises from a complaint by the Jharkhand anti-corruption bureau (ACB).
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