‘Bribes, properties, pay-offs’ — what brought ED spotlight on Jharkhand’s politicians, civil servants

‘Bribes, properties, pay-offs’ — what brought ED spotlight on Jharkhand’s politicians, civil servants

New Delhi: Days before Jharkhand goes to polls in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Monday raided over a dozen locations in the state and recovered over Rs 25 crore found to be in the possession of Sanjiv Lal, personal secretary of Jharkhand rural development minister Alamgir Alam.

Alam is a Congress leader representing Jharkhand’s Pakur assembly seat.

According to sources in the agency, the raids were conducted in connection with a money laundering case registered against Virendra Kumar Ram, the former chief engineer at the Jharkhand Rural Development Department. Ram was arrested in the case in February last year.

The agency said that during its investigation, it found that “huge payments were usually received in cash as bribes, which were later laundered” and the raids were carried out in connection with this. It also said that names of senior civil servants and politicians emerged in the case.

According to the ED, while investigating V.K. Ram, the agency seized incriminating materials related to the allotment of tenders. The agency claims that Ram “played a pivotal role in managing the tenders and allocation of work to private entities” and the percentage of the commission was then distributed in a “mechanized manner to higher-ups of government including highly placed bureaucrats and politicians”

A source in the ED told ThePrint that the agency was probing the senior civil servants and politicians whose names had emerged in connection with the case.

ThePrint tried to reach minister Alam for his response via calls and text messages. This report will be updated if and when he responds.  However, he told reporters that “it wasn’t right to comment” before ED completes its investigation.

“Sanjiv Lal is a government employee. He is my personal secretary. Sanjiv Lal has already been a personal secretary of two former ministers. There are several government employees and we usually appoint personal secretaries based on experience,” he said.

Significantly, Jharkhand will vote for the Lok Sabha elections in four phases starting 13 May.

Bribe, properties — the case

It was a case registered by Jamshedpur’s anti-corruption branch that formed the basis of ED’s money laundering probe and led them to the alleged “nexus” of powerful politicians.

The ED registered a money-laundering case in September 2020 based on ACB Jamshedpur’s November 2019 FIR against a junior engineer named Suresh Prasad Verma, who worked at the state’s road construction department.The ACB’s complaint was in turn based on a complaint from a contractor named Vikas Kumar Sharma, who claimed that Verma had demanded a bribe of Rs 28,000 for clearing dues of Rs 4.54 lakh to be paid out of the total contracted amount of Rs 11.55 lakh. 

According to the ACB, it caught Verma “red-handed” while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from the contractor and arrested him on 14 November 2019.

On the same day, the anti-corruption agency also searched the house of Verma’s wife Pushpa Verma and seized Rs 63,870 cash, some jewellery, and a few property and bank documents.

Officials also allegedly found Rs 2.67 crore in an almirah on the first floor of the house, which was rented out to a man named Alok Ranjan.

Ranjan was arrested, and ACB Jamshedpur filed a chargesheet against both him and Verma on 11 January 2020.

According to ED, during the investigation, S.P. Verma and his family members claimed that the real owner of the Rs 2.67 crore was V.K. Ram and that he and his wife Rajkumari often visited Ranjan at the rented premises. It was eventually found that Ranjan was a cousin of Ram, an engineer from the water resource department in Jharkhand who is currently on deputation as chief engineer to the state’s rural works and rural development departments.

“Further probe revealed that Alok Ranjan who was a cousin of VK Ram was actually safekeeping the ill-gotten money acquired by the Ram,” an ED source said.

‘Huge amounts of cash, flats in South Delhi’

According to ED sources, investigators found that Ram and his family had disproportionate assets — more money in their bank accounts than their legal source of income would allow and properties worth crores in South Delhi.

“The accused also acquired movable and immovable assets in the name of his father Genda Ram, wife Rajkumari, and other family members which is disproportionate to the income earned by VK Ram and his family members,” the source said.

According to ED’s probe, huge amounts were received in the bank accounts of V.K. Ram — Rs 9.30 crore in his joint account with Rajkumari between 2014-15 and 2018-2019 and Rs 4.5 crore in Genda Ram’s account in just over a month between 21 December 2022 and 23 January 2023.

This money was allegedly transferred from the accounts of individuals who were either employees or relatives of Ram’s chartered accountants Mukesh and Mohit Mittal.

“When the CA was questioned, he said that Ram had approached him to manage his money for purchasing properties,” the ED source said. “He also approached Mukesh Mittal to provide entry into the bank accounts of Genda Ram, and for that, VK Ram also gave him cash of Rs 5 crore, against which CA Mukesh had to provide entries in the bank accounts of Genda Ram.”

The source said that Rs 4.48 crore transferred to Genda Ram’s bank account was then used for purchasing property at a posh locality in Delhi.

According to an ED officer, VK Ram said in his statement that he would receive a commission of 0.3 percent of the tender amount from the companies that got the contracts.

“It is established that huge amounts of proceeds of crime are integrated in mainstream economy through fake entities and shell companies and various high-value cash transactions were made by his CA on behalf of VK Ram,” the officer said.

Investigations further revealed that two firms — RK Investment and Consultancy and RP Investment and Consultancy — transferred  Rs 5.70 crore and Rs 3.59 crore, respectively, to the joint account of Ram and Rajkumari in exchange for some benefits. However, the proprietors of those firms told ED that they didn’t know about these transactions.