Congress legislature party leader and minister Alamgir Alam, who is in jail in connection with a money laundering case, resigned from the state cabinet and also as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), an official said on Tuesday.
In a letter to Chief Minister Champai Soren from Birsa Munda Central Jail, Ranchi, Alam tendered his resignation as a cabinet minister, he said.
Alam, in another letter to AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, said, "I hereby submit my resignation from the post of leader of Congress Legislature Party, Jharkhand. I shall remain grateful to the party leadership for providing me an opportunity to work and serve as CLP leader."
Alam was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 15 on money laundering charges.
While Alam resigned on Monday night, Soren last week took away all four departments headed by the Congress leader, including parliamentary affairs, rural development, rural works and panchayati raj. All four departments are currently with the chief minister.
Alamgir was arrested after the ED seized Rs 32 crore from the minister’s PA Sanjeev Lal domestic helper Jahangir. The Enforcement Directorate on first week of May recovered a huge amount of "unaccounted cash", estimated to be Rs 34.23 crore from the premises of the house help of Sanjiv Lal, personal secretary of Jharkhand Minister Alamgir Alam. The cash haul was part of raids at multiple locations in Ranchi by the probe agency that began this morning.
