New Delhi, May 16
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Jharkhand minister and senior state Congress leader Alamgir Alam in a money laundering case.
Few days ago, the federal probe agency had seized Rs 34.50 crore cash from the domestic help of his personal secretary Sanjiv Lal and arrested both of them.
The money laundering investigation pertains to alleged irregularities and payment of bribes in the state Rural Development Department.
The ED had grilled Alam on May 14 at their Ranchi office for nine hours in connection with the cass seizure. He was again questioned for six hours following which he was taken into custody under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED had earlier said that names of senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged as part of its investigation that led to the seizure of the cash last week. In the ED’s remand application for Lal and Jehangir, it had said that several officials from top to bottom of Rural Development Department were involved in a money laundering nexus.
The ED probe had shown that Sanjeev Lal takes care of the collection of commission on behalf of some influential persons and plays a pivotal role in managing the tenders and collection of commission from engineers, also the said percentage of commission is distributed in a mechanised manner to higher-ups of government.
