The Central probe agency—Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday produced state rural development minister Alamgir Alam’s PS Sanjeev Lal and his domestic helper Jahangir Alam at Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court after they were arrested by ED in connection with money laundering scam on Monday. The court remanded six days custody of both of them (Sanjeev Lal and Jahangir Alam) to ED.

The two were arrested on Monday late night after ED recovered over Rs 34 crore from Jahangir Alam’s house at Garikhana. Jahangir disclosed before ED that the money belongs to Sanjeev Lal.

The agency, in its remand petition, informed the court that names of senior bureaucrats and politicians had emerged during the investigation in the scam.

The ED said that several officials from top to bottom of the Rural Development Department are involved in this nexus and the huge payments were usually received in cash which were later laundered and need to be unearthed.

The ED informed the court that Minister Alamgir Alam's secretary collected commission on tenders on behalf of "some influential people", also claiming that officials of his rural development department, from "top to bottom", were involved in an alleged illegal cash payment nexus.

The ED informed the court that Sanjeev plays a pivotal role in managing the tenders and collection of commission from engineers, also the said percentage of commission is distributed in a mechanised manner to higher-ups of government. 

The latest case of money laundering is linked to the suspended chief engineer Veerendra Kumar Ram, who was arrested on February 23 last year. 

Ram, posted in the Water resource department, was on deputation, as chief engineer to Rural Works Department and Rural Development Department (Special Division), Government of Jharkhand.

Sources said that the ED apart from cash has also found many documents linked to transfer/posting and percentage of share in allocation of tenders by rural development department.

The federal agency also discovered an official communication dated May 2023 from the Ranchi unit of the ED in the flat. The communication was addressed to the Jharkhand chief secretary, urging an independent investigation and the filing of an FIR regarding alleged bribes received from contractors associated with the state rural development department.

These allegations stemmed from disclosures reportedly made by Veerendra Kumar Ram, the former chief engineer of the rural works department, who was arrested by the ED in the previous year's case.

Moreover, the authorities found recommendation letters penned by MLAs and other prominent individuals addressed to Alam, advocating for favourable transfers and postings of state government officials. These revelations were made during searches related to a money-laundering case involving Ram. "Veerendra Kumar Ram, posted as chief engineer in the Rural Works Department in Ranchi, had generated proceeds of crime in the name of commission from contractors in lieu of allotment of tenders to them," the agency had alleged in a statement in April last year, after it attached the officer's assets worth Rs 39 crore. 

The ED, during the six-day custody, would ascertain the trail of proceeds of crime involved in the present case and identify the beneficiaries of the aforesaid proceeds of crime.

Among other things, the ED will also ascertain the role of other alleged/ suspected persons involved in the laundering of proceeds of crime.