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A special court in Ranchi has extended the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED’s) remand of Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Aalamgir Alam for five more days in connection with a money laundering case linked to irregularities in tender allocations.
The Congress minister in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition government was produced before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi on Wednesday, May 22 after the completion of his earlier remand period.
During the hearing, ED requested to extend Alam’s remand for another seven days, to which the latter’s council objected, however, the court allowed a five-day remand for Alamgir after listening to both the parties.
According to the reports, the ED while pleading for the extension of remand has also submitted fresh evidences linked to the alleged tender scam after which the court granted five-day custody of the Jharkhand minister.
In the documents submitted by the premier agency a day before producing Alamgir before the special court, the agency has alleged that Alam used to collect a cut money for the tenders allocated by the department.
The agency has further claimed to unearth a diary according to which the Congress leader had earned around Rs1.23 crores through illegal commission in the month of January this year alone. The amount was collected as a cut money from several companies after issuing them letter of acceptance of concerned tenders.
The ED has further claimed that a number of staff of the department were part of the nexus through which crores of rupees were collected and distributed according to the commission basis that was fixed in nature.
It is noteworthy that Alamgir Alam, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after he appeared before the Ranchi based zonal office of the agency on May 15. He was apprehended by the officials after he reportedly did not cooperated during the preliminary enquiry.
The minister from the Congress quota in the Jharkhand coalition government was also grilled by the sleuths of the agencies for around nine hours on May 14.
After the arrest, Alam was produced before a PMLA special court where the agency demanded a 10-day remand of Alam. However, the special court only agreed to allow a six-day custody of the Congress heavyweight, following which he was sent to the Hotwar Jail in judicial custody.
Allegation made by ED
It is noteworthy that the ED, in its remand petition filed before the court on May 16, alleged that the nabbed Congress leader has a share of 1.5 per cent in the illegal money generated as a commission for managing tenders.
The agency had further claimed that a hefty sum of Rs3 crore as commission money was also paid to a close aide of Alamgir in September 2022 by an assistant engineer of the department.
In the petition filed before the court the agency had also mentioned about the confession made by Virendra Ram, former chief engineer of the Jharkhand rural development department and accused in the case who was arrested by the agency in February last year.
ED had further claimed that the money recovered (over 32 crore) from the premises of Alamgir’s Personal Secretary (PS) Sanjiv Lal’s domestic help Jehangir is directly linked to the Jharkhand minister.
It must be noted that the case grabbed the national attention after the ED raided a number of locations, including the premises linked to Alamgir Alam PS, Sanjiv Lal, and his domestic help Jahangir, in connection with the case on May 6.
During the raids conducted by the agency, it recovered a huge cash haul of around Rs 37 37 crore from separate locations, including the recovery of over Rs 32 crore from Jehangir’s Ranchi based flat. The officials of the agency during the raids had also seized important documents and letters from the house of the accused, Jehangir, following which both Jehangir and Sanjiv were apprehended by the agency after initial interrogation.
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