The Enforcement Directorate apprehended Sanjiv Lal, personal secretary to Jharkhand Minister Alamgir Alam, and Sanjiv Lal’s house help Jahangir on Tuesday after a significant sum of “unaccounted cash,” totaling Rs 34.23 crore, was seized during a raid conducted on Monday.
Under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), both individuals were arrested following overnight interrogation, as reported by the PTI news agency.
Today, Sanjiv Lal and Jahangir are scheduled to appear before a court, subsequent to which the Enforcement Directorate will seek remand for further investigation.
Alamgir Alam, the 70-year-old Congress leader and Jharkhand’s Rural Development Minister, has vehemently denied any involvement in wrongful activities.
The Enforcement Directorate conducted multiple raids in Ranchi on Monday, including at a residence occupied by Lal’s house help, as part of a broader investigation into a money laundering case involving Virendra K Ram, a former chief engineer of the Jharkhand Rural Development Department, who was arrested in February 2023.
The investigation pertains to alleged irregularities in the implementation of certain departmental schemes.
In addition to the substantial cash and jewelry recovered from Jahangir’s premises, the probe agency also uncovered Rs 3 crore at another location linked to builder Munna Singh, formerly a contractor in the Jharkhand Rural Development Department.
The money laundering case against Virendra K Ram was initiated following a complaint by the Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
The Enforcement Directorate had previously asserted, in a statement issued last year, that Ram had “generated proceeds of crime under the guise of commissions from contractors in exchange for awarding tenders to them.”
