Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren said on Wednesday all “possible legal actions” will be taken by his government after the state's mining secretary Pooja Singhal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case earlier in the day, news agency ANI reported. Singhal was arrested after she was questioned for two days in the case connected with alleged embezzlement of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds in Jharkhand's Khunti district.
The IAS officer will be produced before a designated court for a hearing of money laundering cases in Ranchi soon, a senior official associated with the ED investigation told HT.
The central agency interrogated Singhal and her husband Abhishek Jha, who runs a super-speciality hospital, for around nine hours on Tuesday. Jha was called for questioning again on Wednesday.
On May 6, the ED had carried out raids in as many as four states on May 6, with the federal agency allegedly recovering ₹17.49 crore from the residence of Suman Kumar - a chartered accountant - associated with Singhal and Jha.
{{/usCountry}}On May 6, the ED had carried out raids in as many as four states on May 6, with the federal agency allegedly recovering ₹17.49 crore from the residence of Suman Kumar - a chartered accountant - associated with Singhal and Jha.
{{/usCountry}}On May 9, the ED had claimed that the couple received cash deposits to the tune of ₹1.43 crore between 2008 and 2011, the same period when alleged embezzlement of MGNREGA funds occurred. The statement was made when the agency produced Kumar before a Ranchi court on the same day after arresting him two days before.
The ED probe is in link to a money laundering case wherein a former junior engineer in the Jharkhand government, Ram Binod Prasad Sinha, was held by the agency in June last year from West Bengal. The arrest was made after he was booked under the PMLA in 2012 following a study of the FIRs of the state vigilance bureau against him.
The money allegedly embezzled was earmarked for the execution of government projects under MGNREGA in Khunti, the ED said. Singhal had served as the deputy commissioner of the district from 2009 to 2010.
Sinha reportedly said that he paid 5 per cent commission out of the defrauded funds to the district (Khunti) administration.