Two held after ED seizes

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Jharkhand rural development minister Alamgir Alam’s personal secretary, Sanjiv Lal, and a domestic help after recovering over ₹35 crore in cash during raids related to a money laundering probe, people aware of the matter said on Tuesday.
ED launched searches at various locations in Ranchi, including Alam’s premises, on Monday. The agency recovered ₹32 crore and ₹3 crore in cash at separate places, all in ₹500 notes. Eight counting machines and bank staff were brought in to count the money.
Lal and his help, Jahangir Alam, were produced before a Ranchi court, which remanded them to six-day ED custody.
“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,” the ED said in court. “Also, the said percentage of commission is distributed in a mechanised manner to higher-ups of government.”
The crackdown followed the February 2023 arrest of Virendra Ram, a former Jharkhand rural development department chief engineer. Ram was arrested for allegedly amassing ₹100 crore in wealth. ED told the court that a percentage of the commission Ram allegedly collected was distributed among senior bureaucrats and politicians.
ED informed the court that the cash recovered on Monday is the commission collected by Lal, based on information provided by Ram during interrogation.
“During the course of search proceedings on 06.05.2024 at various locations, incriminating material/documents were found along with huge stocked up cash of ₹32.20 crores from the premises of [Jahangir] Alam and an additional amount of ₹2.93 crores found & seized from the premise of another associate,” an ED note said. “[Jahangir] Alam was assisting Lal and was hoarding the money on the instruction of Lal.”
A lawyer present in the court quoted ED’s advocate as saying that Lal took care of commission on behalf of some influential persons and played a pivotal role in managing tenders and collection of commission — or alleged kickbacks as part of the tendering process — from engineers.
The agency alleged that names of senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged during the investigation into the tender scam. “Several officials from top to bottom of the rural development department are involved in this nexus and the huge payments were usually received in cash which were later laundered, and need to be unearthed,” the ED said.
Seeking remand, ED said it needed to ascertain the trail of proceeds of crime and identify the beneficiaries. The agency also said it wants to investigate the role of other suspected persons involved in laundering the money.
ED continued raids for the second day at five locations in Ranchi and recovered ₹1.5 crore from contractor Rajiv Kumar Singh’s residence, an ED official said, asking not to be named.