In the money laundering case, suspended Chief Engineer of the Rural Works Department, Virendra Ram, was produced in the court of ED Special Judge PK Sharma through video conferencing from the jail on Friday.
The ED court extended the judicial custody of Virendra Ram till July 7. On April 21, charge sheet was filed in the ED court against Virendra Ram, his brother Alok Ranjan, Virendra Ram's wife Rajkumari Devi and father Genda Ram.
The ED team has seized assets worth more than Rs 39.28 crore of Virendra Ram. The central probe agency has alleged that the seized property has been acquired by Virender by extorting commission from the tender. On February 22, during a raid on the residence of Virendra Ram, he was arrested by the ED from his Ashok Nagar residence in Ranchi. During the raids at Virendra Ram's hideouts, ED got cash worth more than 40 lakhs and jewelery worth 1.5 crores.
ED had also recovered about a dozen luxury vehicles from him. In ED's interrogation, information about movable and immovable property worth 125 crores was received from him.
The ED in its Prosecution Complaint (PC) (equivalent to a chargesheet) in the money laundering case involving the suspended Chief Engineer of the Rural Development Department, Veerendra Ram, who is in jail has also given information about people who earn illegal money by managing tenders. Along with this, information about who got how much share and who played what role has also been given.
The ED in its PC mentioned that Ram used to take commission for awarding tenders. The probe agency has mentioned that Rs 9.30 crore was deposited from various sources in the joint bank account of Virendra Ram and his wife Rajkumari Devi between 2014-15 to 2018-19.
Apart from this, the PC mentions, between December 21, 2022 and January 23, 2023, Rs 4.5 crore has been deposited in the account of Ram’s father Genda Ram. All these amounts were transferred from the accounts of the employees and relatives of Ram’s chartered accountants (CA) Mukesh and Mohit Mittal.
The ED mentioned that during the investigation it found that Rs 5.70 crore and Rs 3.59 crore were deposited in the joint account of Veerendra Ram and his wife Rajkumari Devi in Canara Bank from the bank accounts of two companies RK Investment and Consultancy and RP Investment and Consultancy. The directors of these companies, the PC mentions, are Rakesh Kumar Kedia and Reena Pal, and their account was being operated by CA Mukesh Mittal.
On February 22, the ED had arrested Ram. A day before this, the ED had raided his 24 locations. During the raid, the ED recovered documents related to investment of crores in many cities of the country including jewellery worth about one and a half crores. In this case, ED has also arrested Alok Ranjan, a relative of Veerendra Ram.