Tag : MGNREGA

Ranchi: Jharkhand mining secretary Pooja Singhal and her husband received 'huge' cash deposits -- to the tune of Rs 1.43 crore -- over and above her salary in their accounts, during the period she faced charges of irregularities while being posted as the DM of various districts in the state, the Enforcement Directorate has said. The federal agency also told a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Ranchi that the IAS officer allegedly transferred Rs 16.57 lakh from her 'personal account' to those controlled or owned by her CA Suman Kumar. Kumar was arrested on Saturday for alleged money laundering in a case linked to alleged fraud of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act money. The 39-year-old was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate from Ranchi after the agency conducted multi-city raids against him, Singhal, her businessman husband Abhishek Jha and others, on May 6. The special court sent him to ED custody till May 11. Jha is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in Ranchi. The ED said it has seized over Rs 17.79 crore in cash from the residential and office premises of the chartered accountant. Officials had deployed machines to count the cash haul and photos and videos of this exercise was widely shared over social media. The overall cash seizure after these raids, as per the agency, stands at Rs 19.31 crore with seizure also being made from another location in Ranchi. Seeking Kumar's custody, the agency in its remand note said, the CA was "withholding" information regarding the source of the cash seized from his house and was not disclosing the "actual owner" of the cash. The agency alleged in the court document that Singhal, an IAS officer of the 2000 batch, used funds that wer ...