Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally for the Jharkhand Assembly polls in Bokaro on Sunday, November 10th, and promised the people that the BJP would ensure corruption-free government in the state. PM Modi also slammed the JMM for playing caste politics by trying to mobilise the OBCs. Earlier, on 4th November, he stated that the JMM, Congress, and the RJD have crossed all the limits of corruption.
On 5th November, CM Yogi Adityanath, while addressing an election rally in Koderma, accused the JMM of fostering corruption and protecting mafia activities across the state. Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on 2nd November, also accused the JMM of corruption in the name of government schemes.
Notably, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), to date, has sent 47 First Information Reports (FIR), 24 intimation letters, and 11 reminders to the top officials in Jharkhand accusing them of scams in the land, mining, sand, and MNREGA sectors. These notices have been sent by the central agency in just the past two years.
As per an exclusive report by News18, these notices have been sent to higher authorities in the state including at least three ministers, four senior IAS officers, and multiple district mining officers (DMO). Meanwhile, the officials who have received the reminders include the chief secretary, Director General of Police (DGP), Director General (DG) of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), and key principal secretaries.
As these notices remained unresponsive in the due period, the agency filed a comprehensive 140-page writ petition, including 10 annexures, in the Jharkhand High Court last week. The ED shared extensive documentation with the state, presenting evidence of alleged ‘criminal’ mismanagement and corruption in connection with at least five major scams from September 2022 to September 2024. These included counterfeiting government stamps, corruption in coal and MSME allotments, illegal sand mining and sales, irregularities in MNREGA, rural development scams, forged land deeds, and other land-related frauds.
“Despite the evidence, the Jharkhand government reportedly stonewalled the investigations, by not taking action or registering fresh FIRs, leaving the corruption network untouched and operational. This calculated inaction not only calls into question the accountability of the state’s highest offices but also raises alarm over systemic corruption that appears to be sheltered by those in power,” ED said in the petition.
“With each ignored intimation and FIR, the Jharkhand government has seemingly reinforced its complicity, allowing a culture of impunity to thrive. The state’s decision to turn a blind eye to such damning evidence threatens to further undermine public trust in governance, drawing serious questions about its commitment to law and order,” it added.
The state of Jharkhand governed by the JMM has been in the news for major corruption scams that looted the taxpayers for massive sums. Here are a few cases that were widely reported and that shook the system forcing central agencies to interfere:
Embezzlement of MNREGA funds
The Khunti district MNREGA scam in Jharkhand is one of the high-profile scams which actually dates back to Jharkhand in the 2010s. Recently, in April 2024, the SC dismissed a plea of suspended Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Pooja Singhal seeking bail in a money laundering case linked to the alleged embezzlement of MNREGA funds and other charges. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta declined the bail plea saying it’s an ‘extraordinary case’.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Singhal against the Jharkhand High Court order dismissing her bail plea. The Enforcement Directorate has accused Singhal of money laundering, saying more than Rs. 36 crore cash, linked to alleged illegal mining, was seized by its teams as part of two separate money laundering investigations.
Apart from the 2000-batch IAS officer, her businessman husband, a chartered accountant associated with the couple, and others were also raided by the ED as part of a money laundering probe linked to a case of alleged corruption in the MNREGA scheme. Singhal was arrested in 2022 after the ED stated that it had credible evidence of her connection with CA Suman Kumar from whom the ED had recovered more than Rs 25 crores of cash.
It all started when a money laundering case was filed against a former junior engineer in the Jharkhand government, Ram Binod Prasad Sinha. In June 2020, Sinha was arrested from the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal by the ED after PMLA charges were filed against him in 2012.
Sinha was reported to have told the investigators that Pooja Singhal had obliged two NGOs, Welfare Point and Prerna Niketan, with Rs 6 crores fund and had granted a mining lease on 83 acres of forest land in contravention of the environmental regulations. She was accused of having committed irregularities in the MNRGEA. Singhal was the secretary of the Department of Mines and Geology and the managing director of Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation Limited (JSMDC). A detailed report regarding this case was covered by OpInida. The same can be read here.
Land scam involving Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren
In June this year, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren was granted bail by the High Court after he was arrested in a major land scam case. According to an official statement, the ED had opened a probe into three cases of land fraud based on numerous FIRs filed by the Jharkhand Police and the West Bengal Police against Pradip Bagchi, Bishnu Kumar Agarwal, Bhanu Pratap Prasad as well as others under various Indian Penal Code sections.
It was alleged that a massive mafia racket transferred land ownership illegally in Jharkhand. The government notification stated that “these criminal elements used to forge the legacy records in Ranchi and Kolkata.” Additionally, it was discovered that dishonest government employees had fabricated land ownership records to curry favor with the aforementioned land mafia. Around 14 individuals were arrested in this case by January 2024 including Bhanu Pratap Prasad, the Revenue Deputy Inspector of Badgai region in Ranchi.
During a raid on Prasad’s residence, the ED seized a substantial amount of government documents along with several suspicious documents retrieved from his mobile phone. The agency conducted more than 40 searches and over 5 surveys concerning the case.
Meanwhile, on 1st September 2023, the ED officials had attached three plots worth over Rs 161.64 crore in Ranchi in this case. It was alleged that these land parcels were fraudulently altered to the advantage of land mafias with the help of Land Revenue Department personnel. It was the second attachment in the case taking the total value of the assets that have been attached to a staggering Rs 236 crore.
In September, the ED also filed a second chargesheet in the case. The first prosecution complaint had previously been lodged on 12th June 2023. Notably, 14 accused arrested in the case included Pradip Bagchi, Afshar Ali, Saddam Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmed, Talha Khan, Faiyaaz Khan, Bhanu Pratap Prasad, 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan (Ex DC Ranchi), Dilip Kumar Ghosh, Amit Kumar Agarwal, Bishnu Kumar Agarwal, Rajesh Rai, Bharat Prasad, and Prem Prakash.
The CM of the state was also arrested in the case on January 31st after his name was mentioned in the statements of businessman Vishnu Agarwal and Revenue Sub-Inspector of Bargain Circle Bhanu Pratap Prasad. The ED had accused him of running a scheme to manipulate records, via fictitious transactions and forged documents, and acquiring 8.86 acres of land in Ranchi worth crores. However, later he was released.
Jharkhand Mining Scam
The CBI recently, on 5th November, conducted searches at 16 locations across three states, including election-bound Jharkhand, as part of its investigation into an illegal stone mining scam at Nimbu Pahar, where a political aide to Chief Minister Hemant Soren is reportedly under scrutiny. The searches were carried out in Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Bihar, covering 11 locations in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj, three in Ranchi, and one each in Patna and Kolkata, targeting premises of suspects and their associates. During the raids, the CBI seized Rs 50 lakh in cash, one kilogram of gold, one kilogram of silver, and property documents worth several crores. The agency filed this case on November 23, 2023, following directives from the Jharkhand High Court.
In an earlier FIR from November 20, 2022, the CBI’s Ranchi unit booked Pankaj Mishra, a reported political aide to Chief Minister Soren, along with Pavitra Kumar Yadav, Rajesh Yadav, Sanjay Kumar Yadav, Bachhu Yadav, Sanjay Yadav, and Suvesh Mandal, for their alleged involvement in pilferage and illegal extraction of stone at Nimbu Pahar in Sahibganj.
Following the preliminary inquiry, the CBI assumed control of the FIR filed by Sahibganj Police against the eight accused. During a hearing, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) reported that Mishra was responsible for the illegal stone mining and transportation operations in Sahibganj, noting that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had also raised serious concerns over illegal mining in the area.
The high court noted the ED’s assertion that Pankaj Mishra, a representative of the Jharkhand chief minister and a highly influential figure, was directly involved in illegal mining in Sahibganj and neighbouring areas. The court added that Mishra, already arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and held in jail, appeared to benefit from political protection, hindering a thorough investigation.
Jal Jeevan Mission Scam
In the month of October, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted simultaneous raids at 20 locations in connection with a multi-crore scam involving the Jal Jeevan Mission under the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Among those facing the raids were IAS officer Manish Ranjan, Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Mithlesh Thakur, and his associates.
Reports indicate that these raids are part of an investigation into alleged irregularities in the Jal Jeevan Mission, the scam allegedly exceeding around Rs 4,000 crore. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has already been filed regarding these allegations. During the Lok Sabha election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leaders also highlighted the scam, which involves a central scheme aimed at providing piped drinking water to every household.
Raids took place at the premises of Vinay Thakur, Minister Mithlesh Thakur’s brother; Harendra Singh, his personal secretary; and several department engineers, with locations including Indrapuri, Ratu Road, Harmu, and Morhabadi in Ranchi, as well as Chaibasa and Garhwa in Jharkhand. It is crucial to note that Mithlesh Thakur, a contractor-turned-politician, is an important figure in the current administration. IAS officer Manish Ranjan, who previously faced ED scrutiny over a rural development scam, served as the department’s secretary for an extended period.
Tender Scam in Jharkhand
On 30th October, the ED accused former Jharkhand rural development minister Alamgir Alam of pressurising the department’s chief engineer to collect a “commission” from each tender. The ED filed a prosecution complaint at the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ranchi and stated that Alamgir Alam and his associates generated proceeds of crime totaling up to Rs 56 crore.
The agency reported that the chief engineer, responsible for final decisions on department tenders, was compelled to collect 3 percent of each approved contract’s value as a commission for the rural development department. Of this amount, around 1.35 percent was allegedly funneled to Alam’s aides on his behalf, with the remaining portion distributed among engineers and other officials.
Alamgir Alam has been held in jail since his arrest by the ED on May 15th. Later, in June, he resigned as cabinet minister and Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader in the Jharkhand Assembly. A four-time MLA, Alam has not been fielded as a candidate by the Congress, which forms part of the ruling alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in the state. Instead, his wife Nishat is running for his seat in Pakur.
The case by ED against Alamgir Alam is based on two First Information Reports (FIRs) one of which was by the Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in 2019, and another by the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in 2023. The 2019 FIR, filed by the Jharkhand ACB, resulted in a chargesheet against Suresh Prasad Verma from Jamshedpur and his tenant Alok Ranjan, with Rs 2.67 crore being recovered. Following this, the ED filed an Enforcement Complaint Information Report (ECIR) in 2020, alleging that the funds recovered from Alok Ranjan were part of a ‘commission’ collected by then-chief engineer Veerendra Kumar Ram from the rural development department.
In a separate investigation, the Delhi Police EOW further charged chartered accountant Mukesh Mittal for allegedly assisting Ram in laundering illicit funds into the bank accounts of Ram’s relatives. In May, the ED conducted searches at properties linked to Alamgir Alam’s private secretary Sanjeev Kumar Lal, domestic helper Jahangir Alam, and real estate associate Munna Singh, who allegedly gathered commissions on Lal’s behalf. The ED claimed that Rs 32.20 crore seized during a search at Jahangir Alam’s residence in Ranchi was concealed there by Lal on Alamgir Alam’s instructions.
Over a span of three days, from May 6th to May 8th, the ED seized Rs 37.55 crore in cash. Statements from Ram and Alamgir Alam’s secretary, Lal, made under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), revealed that a commission of 3-4% of the total value of tenders awarded to contractors was extracted for departmental projects. The ED further alleged in its complaint that Alamgir Alam was directly involved in possessing and concealing at least Rs 35 crore in proceeds of crime through Sanjeev Kumar Lal, and in acquiring and hiding an additional Rs 56 crore of illicit funds.
