ED recovers pile of cash from domestic help linked to Jharkhand minister’s secretary
The recovery took place after a raid was conducted simultaneously at nine locations in Ranchi in connection with a money laundering case
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday claimed to have recovered “unaccounted cash” to the tune of ₹25 crore from the residence of a domestic help allegedly linked to Jharkhand rural development minister Alamgir Alam’s personal secretary Sanjiv Lal.
A source close to ED confirmed the recovery and 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 ₹100 crore through “cuts” from contractors appointed for implementation of government schemes under the rural development department, the ED source 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 ED source revealed.
After Ram’s arrest last year, ED had informed a court in Ranchi that a percentage of commission collected by 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 ₹121 crore in the case related to Ram, and a third identified as Tara Chand,” another ED source 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 is being investigated by ED,” the agency said in February 2023 in a remand note, seen by HT.
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.”