The ED on Monday seized more than Rs 30 crore in cash from the servant of Sanjeev Pal, private secretary of state Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam, in raids at various places in Jharkhand capital Ranchi in the Virendra Ram case. Jewelery was also confiscated. According to sources, most of the seized cash consists of Rs 500 notes. A note counting machine and a steel trunk were taken to Sanjeev Pal’s house. ED also raided the house of Road Construction Department engineer Vikas Kumar. It is noteworthy that in February last year, ED had arrested Virendra Ram, Chief Engineer of Jharkhand Rural Development Department, in a money laundering case. During interrogation, he revealed his relations with many big personalities. Virendra Ram got Rs. Property worth Rs 150 crore was found. Apart from this, gold jewelery worth Rs 2 crore, a laptop and some pen drives were also found. The raids on 24 locations of Virendra Ram, which started on February 21 last year, were completed the next day. Meanwhile, he was interrogated for two days on the basis of the documents recovered from him. Virendra Ram has been in jail for more than a year. Last year, ED had alleged that Virendra earned crores of black money on commission in exchange for awarding tenders to contractors.
It is noteworthy that the third phase of voting is to be held. At the same time, politics has also heated up due to the recovery of such a huge amount of cash during the ED raid. Political parties are blaming each other.
Who is Alamgir Alam?
Alamgir Alam is a four-time Congress MLA. He was elected MLA from Pakur assembly seat in the years 2000, 2005, 2014 and 2019. He has also been the Speaker of the Assembly from October 2006 to December 2009. After the 2019 elections, he became a minister in the grand coalition government formed in Jharkhand. Regarding the raid, he distanced himself from private secretary Sanjeev Pal and said that he had previously been the private secretary of two former ministers. He is a civil servant and has been appointed on the basis of experience.
Last December, Congress MP had received Rs 351 crore cash from there.
Congress seems to be trapped in the whole matter. BJP has demanded the arrest of Alamgir Alam. In December last year, BJP had accused Jharkhand Congress MP Dheeraj Sahu of Rs. Rs 351 crore cash was also collected. For the first time in the history of the Income Tax Department, such a huge amount has been found in a raid. After this, the Income Tax Department raided more than 40 places in Odisha, Jharkhand and East Bengal, in which so much cash was found that 40 note counting machines had to be used. The cash was carried in 200 bags and trunks. The Income Tax Department said that this cash was earned from cash sale of liquor. The Sahu family has been associated with the liquor business for decades. Most of the liquor shops in Odisha-Jharkhand belong to the Sahu family. After the raid, Sahu claimed that all the money belonged to his family and Congress had nothing to do with it. It was reported that he had paid tax on an amount of Rs 150 crore out of Rs 351 crore in February this year. After this raid, the Congress party has distanced itself from it.
