A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court on Thursday, May 30, sent Jharkhand Rural Development Minister and accused in a money laundering case, Aalamgir Alam, to judicial custody for two days. Alam will be lodged at Hotwar jail.
Alam was produced before the court on Thursday after his three days’ remand ended on Wednesday, May 29. Earlier, the court extended Alam Enforcement Directorate’s (ED’s) remand for the third time after the completion of his earlier remands of six and five days, respectively, on May 22 and May 26.
During the ED’s remand, Alam was grilled along with his Personal Secretary (PS), Sanjiv Lal, house help of Sanjiv, Jehangir, and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and former secretary at Jharkhand Rural Development Ministry, Manish Ranjan.
#WATCH | Kishlay Prasad, Attorney representing Alamgir Alam says, " His judicial remand has started today. He was on ED remand and that was completed so ED wanted him to be sent to judicial custody. We had filed a petition so that he could get medical aid…they have said that he… https://t.co/WTwRNdO4eM pic.twitter.com/BrD6E3SEyY
— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2024
IAS Manish Ranjan was recently summoned by the ED in connection with the case, following which the former appeared before the agency on May 28. According to the reports, both Ranjan and Alam were interrogated simultaneously by the officials about their previous communications linked to tenders allotted from the department.
According to the reports, Ranjan’s name in the case had also surfaced after the arrest of Virendra Ram, chief engineer at the Jharkhand Rural Development Department, who was nabbed by the ED in connection with the alleged irregularities in implementation of some government schemes in February last year.
ED submit fresh evidences in the case
Notably, the ED has also submitted fresh evidences linked to the alleged tender scam before the court on May 21. In the documents submitted by the premier agency before the special court, it has claimed 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.
Further, ED has alleged 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.
Notably, 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 allegedly did not cooperate during the preliminary enquiry.
After the arrest, Alam was produced before a PMLA special court, where he was sent to six-day custody, which was later extended to five and three days, respectively.
Alleged Tender Commission Scam
It is to be noted that the economic intelligence agency is probing a money laundering case linked to illegal generation of crores of rupees as commission money for managing tenders issued to separate companies from the Jharkhand Rural Development Ministry.
The agency after arresting Alam, Sanjiv Lal and his housekeeper Jehangir, has submitted before the court that the arrested 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 crores of rupees as commission money were also paid to a close aide of Alamgir in September 2022 by an assistant engineer of the department.
Further, the ED has also claimed that the money (around 37 crore) recovered from the premises linked to Lal’s house help Jehangir is linked to the Jharkhand minister.
It must be noted that 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 Rs37 crore from separate locations, including the recovery of over Rs30 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. Significantly, the agency had also arrested Virendra Ram and five others in connection with the money laundering case linked to the multi-crore alleged Tender Scam.
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