On Friday 6th May 2022, Enforcement Directorate (ED) recovered crores of rupees in cash from the house of IAS Pooja Singhal’s Chartered Accountant (CA). The house was raided in connection with the illegal mining case. According to the latest reports, cash of 25 crores was recovered.
The ED is also raiding the Pulse Hospital in Ranchi and 20 other places in the country. This hospital belongs to a close relative of Pooja Singhal. Pooja Singhal is the secretary of the mines and geology department of the Jharkhand. The search operations are on since the morning.
ED is conducting raids at Pulse Hospital, Ranchi. Hospital owner is a close relative of Pooja Singhal, Secretary, Mines and Geology in the state of Jharkhand. Search underway since morning: Sources
— ANI (@ANI) May 6, 2022
Raids which started at 6 AM under the leadership of a joint director spread to New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Faridabad, Gurugram, Muzaffarpur, Ranchi, and other cities. Pooja Singhal is a 2000 batch IAS officer of the Jharkhand cadre. ED recovered rupees 25 crores in cash from the office of her chartered accountant at Ranchi.
Six places in Ranchi were raided by ED, one of which is a super specialty hospital of her second husband. Her first husband is a 1999 batch IAS officer in Jharkhand.
Jharkhand illegal mining case: ED recovers ₹17 Cr from IAS Pooja Singhal’s CA’s premises https://t.co/bu7A37tB0l
— Republic (@republic) May 6, 2022
The case pertains to a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act by the Enforcement Directorate in 2020 against Jharkhand junior engineer Ram Binod Prasad Sinha. Ram Binod Prasad Sinha was arrested by the ED on June 17, 2020, in the 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
The central probe agency had taken cognizance of 16 FIRs and a charge sheet filed by the Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau against Sinha, according to which Sinha was accused of misappropriating government funds worth Rs 18.06 crore. Ram Binod Prasad Sinha was a junior engineer in Khunti when Pooja Singhal was the District Collector of Khunti.
Sinha is 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. As deputy commissioners in Chatra, Palamu, and Khunti districts, she is alleged to have committed irregularities in the MNRGEA.
In Ranchi, Panchayati residency, block number 9, Chandni Chowk Hariom Tower, New Building, Lalpur, and Pulse Hospital in Ranchi have been raided. The Jharkhand High Court had ordered that the ED should file a counter affidavit in the case. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nishikant Dubey tweeted, “She is the blue-eyed bureaucrat of chief minister Hemant Soren. She had obliged the chief minister, her brother, and close relatives with the allotment of mines.”
झारखंड सरकार यानि मुख्यमंत्री हेमंत सोरेन जी के नाक की बाल पूजा सिंघल जी,जिन्होंने मुख्यमंत्री,भाई,गुर्गों व दलालों को कौड़ी के भाव खान आवंटित किया ,आख़िर उनके यहाँ ED का छापा 20 जगह पर चल रहा है, यह छापा राँची,दिल्ली,राजस्थान,मुम्बई में जारी है
— Dr Nishikant Dubey (@nishikant_dubey) May 6, 2022
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren holds the Mining and Environment portfolios in the state. In a related update, on May 2, the Election Commission sent a notice to Hemant Soren over a mining lease granted in his name in alleged violation of Section 9A of the Representation of Peoples’ Act 1951.
