Jharkhand Minister:
RANCHI: The Rs32.5 crore cash found in a house in Ranchi on May 6 belongs to Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam, 70, who was arrested on Wednesday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) informed a special court about this on Thursday and asked to take him into custody for questioning. The court sent the minister, who is in charge of parliamentary affairs and rural development, to Birsa Munda Central Jail for one day. It also allowed the ED to keep him in custody for six days starting on Friday.
There was no official information about the questions being asked to the state minister. He is the second Jharkhand minister, after former chief minister Hemant Soren, to be question by the ED. On May 6, the ED searched various places in Ranchi and seized Rs32 crore and Rs3 crore in cash, all in Rs500 notes. The next day, the agency arrested the minister’s aide, Sanjeev Lal, and his helper, Jahangir Alam. Alam was arrested for money laundering on Wednesday after being questioned for nearly 15 hours over two days.
This is related to alleged irregularities in the state’s rural development department and supposed corruption with contractors involved in government schemes. These issues occurred during the time of the former chief engineer, Virendra Ram, who was arrested in February 2023 for accumulating Rs100 crore in wealth.
What investigation team said Jharkhand Minister.
The investigation agency said that minister played a key role in the on-going investigation of a tender scam. According to Virendra Kumar Ram’s statement during his interrogation, 1.5% of the project cost was collected from successful bidders.
The agency stated, Ram collected commissions from allocating tenders and executing work, and 1.5% of this commission was given to Minister Alamgir Alam. The ED, which requested 15 days of custody for Alamgir Alam, said it found official documents and cash at the home of his employee, Jahangir Alam. These documents should have been with the minister’s private secretary, Sanjeev Kumar Lal. This shows that Sanjeev Kumar Lal was using this house to store documents, cash, and other items related to the minister.
The ED also told the court that assistant engineers in the Rural Development Special Division and Rural Works Department were responsible for collecting and distributing the commission. It was found that Alamgir Alam’s share of the allocated tender amount was 1.5%, and in one instance, he received a commission of Rs. 3 crores from an assistant engineer in September 2022, facilitated by one of his close aides.
Alam, a Congress lawmaker from Pakur, is an important leader from the Santhal Parganas division in the state, where three Lok Sabha seats are up for grabs on June 1. However, the party has distanced itself from him since the first ED raids on his OSD Sanjeev Lal on May 6. Alam did not attend rallies by Congrss chief Mallikarjun Kharge on May 14 and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi on May 7.
Jharkhand Minister: The party called his arrest “political vendetta.”
Jharkhand Congress spokesperson Rakesh Sinha said, “After four phases of elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows they are losing the polls. This is a desperate attempt to disturb the elections by proxy. Alam is a major force in Santhal Parganas where elections are due in the seventh phase. This arrest is sheer vendetta.”