The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted raids at premises related to the serving mining secretary of Jharkhand Pooja Singhal in connection with a multi-crore rupee money laundering probe linked to embezzlement of over Rs 20 crore in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), in the state’s Khunti district.
As per local media reports the searches at around 16 locations in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar and Rajasthan were conducted by the central agency under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The official residence of the 2000 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer was also searched by the ED. The action by the ED is taking place after the arrest of Ram Binod Prasad Sinha, a former junior engineer with the Jharkhand government who was booked by the agency over cheating and corruption for defrauding public money and investing the same in his own name as well as in the name of his family members while working in Khunti district. At that time Puja Singhal was the district collector. Sources in the Jharkhand government have informed the media that the ED had not ruled out the involvement of the IAS officer in the corruption scandal and is looking at collecting evidence related to her involvement.
A case was lodged against Sinha in 2018 but he was absconding and was arrested on June 17, 2020 from the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal by the central agency. There are more than a dozen First Investigative Report (FIRs) and charge sheets filed by the Jharkhand vigilance bureau in the case and after which the ED took over the charge of the matter.