India: ED detains Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam's aide and helper after $4mn found in raids

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) detained Sanjiv Lal, personal secretary of Jharkhand rural development minister Alamgir Alam, and his domestic help on Tuesday (May 7) after finding over ₹35 crore ($4mn) in cash following a raid conducted in conjunction with a money laundering case.

After being questioned all night about the cash and its beneficiaries, the two were taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

On Monday, the ED conducted raids at several locations in Ranchi, a 2BHK apartment allegedly used by Lal's domestic help Jehangir. It claimed to have found cash worth ₹32 crore ($3.8mn) and ₹3 crore ($0.12mn) at different locations. Eight counting machines and bank personnel were deployed to count the cash, all in the denomination of ₹500.

A former chief engineer of the Jharkhand rural development department, Virendra Ram, was arrested in February 2023 on suspicion of amassing wealth of over ₹100 crore ($11.97mn). ED informed a Ranchi court that a portion of the commission he allegedly earned was given to prominent bureaucrats and politicians.

“Ram played a pivotal role in managing tenders and allocation of work to private entities and the percentage of commission is distributed in a mechanised manner to higher-ups of government, including highly placed bureaucrats and politicians. Further, during [the] investigation, names of senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged which is being investigated by ED,” the agency said in its remand note in February 2023.

Also read: Watch: Nearly $3mn found at home of domestic help linked to Jharkhand minister

Pratul Shahdeo, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jharkhand spokesperson, had said on Monday, “Earlier ₹350 ($41.9mn) crore was recovered from Congress’s Rajya Sabha member Dheeraj Sahay, ₹20 crore ($2.39mn) from the mines secretary. Now recovery of ₹25 crore ($2.99mn) has been made from the servant of the minister’s OSD [officer on special duty]. It is a matter of probing from where the servant, who hardly gets ₹30000 monthly, got such a huge amount. I think it was black money kept to spend during the election.”

Alam has refuted any wrongdoing. He said that Lal, a government employee, had served as secretary to two former ministers also. “There are several government employees and we usually appoint personal secretaries based on experience. It is not right to comment on the raids before ED’s investigation is completed,” he added.

(With inputs from agencies)