Jharkhand : IAS Pooja Singhal arrested, Pooja Singhal’s night cut in Hotwar jail, Center sought full report
ED arrested IAS officer Pooja Singhal late on Wednesday evening on charges of money laundering. She is the first IAS officer from Jharkhand to be arrested by the ED. The reason for the arrest is his inability to give account of the cash deposited by him in the account of ICICI, amounting to about one crore rupees. After his arrest, he was produced before ED Special Judge PK Sharma.
ED sought remand for 12 days, but the court gave remand for five days. After this, Pooja Singhal was sent to the Central Jail Hotwar. Meanwhile, in view of the ED’s action in the MNREGA scam, the Center has sought a full report in the matter. On the information received during the interrogation of CA Suman Kumar, the ED raided the builder’s premises in Kolkata as well.
Revealed in the investigation of bank accounts
During the investigation of the MNREGA scam in Khunti, the ED had sought details of Pooja Singhal’s bank accounts and the amount deposited in it from various banks. After analyzing the information received from the banks, the ED found that Rs 1 crore cash was deposited in his ICICI Bank account. In this deposit, he bought 13 insurance policies at a cost of 80.48 lakhs.
Pooja Singhal case: How ED made blue print of operation, CISF and CRPF also got together
After this, money was transferred to CA Suman Kumar and his related accounts. He transferred Rs 3.96 lakh to Suman Kumar’s account on 26 May 2015. 6.39 lakh was transferred to the account of Santosh Crusher Metal, a partnership company of Suman and his father and Rs 6.22 lakh to the account of Radheshyam Explosives Pvt Ltd. During interrogation on May 10, the ED had asked him questions related to the cash deposited in his bank accounts.
Along with this, details of those who deposited cash in their accounts were sought. On May 10, Pooja Singhal expressed her inability to immediately give details. He was given time on May 11 to present his side on the same issue. She appeared in the ED office on May 11 at around 10.30. He was questioned at length. However, she was unable to give details of the cash amount deposited in the bank account. Then ED arrested him around 5.30 pm.
When What Happened: At a Glance
- MNREGA scam in Khunti in 2008-09 and 2009-10, Pooja Singhal was the DC in Khunti from 16 February 2009 to 19 July 2010 Pooja to engineer18. 06 for MNREGA crore given in advance
- FIR against engineer Ram Vinod Sinha and RK Jain in Khunti and Adki police station in 2011 after withdrawal of money without work
- Related case registered under surveillance in July 2011
- ED registers FIR in MNREGA scam on 18.5.2012, On 28.11.2018 the engineer accepted to pay 20% commission in MNREGA
- On May 6, 2022, ED raided the places of worship and others.
- CA Suman Kumar was arrested in the same case on May 7.
- Interrogation of Abhishek Jha on May 8
- ED questioned Pooja Singhal on May 10
- Pooja Singhal was arrested on 11 May
- Could not give account of one crore deposited in ICICI Bank
Center seeks report on ED’s action in MNREGA scam in Khunti
