WEB DES DESK
CONTROVERSIAL IAS officer and Jharkhand Mines Secretary Pooja Singhal has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after her second day of questioning in connection with the ongoing probe of the Prevention of Money Laundering case pertaining to alleged embezzlement of MNREGA funds.
Singhal on Wednesday again joined the probe after being grilled for 9 hours on Tuesday. The ED, after collecting enough evidence against her, placed her under arrest.
The ED sources said that they would scan her transactions of the last three years, to check the suspicious money trail, if any. The agency is also scanning the details of all her properties.
A source said that a total of four cars of her husband Abhishek Jha’s CA Suman Kumar, who was arrested on Saturday, has been seized, as sources said that someone else had made the payments for luxury cars, which is suspicious.
The Jharkhand government has suspended state mining secretary Pooja Singhal after she was arrested Wednesday by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case and sent to remand for five days. The state’s department of personnel, administrative reforms and ‘rajbhasha’ (official language) has issued a notice citing Singhal’s arrest under section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as the reason for her suspension.
This comes after chief minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday said his government would take all ‘possible legal actions’ against Singhal following her arrest.
Singhal was arrested by the central agency in connection with the alleged embezzlement of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds from Khunti district.
She was questioned for two days before being held on Wednesday. Her husband, Abhishek Jha, who runs a super-specialty hospital, was also interrogated. The ED questioned the couple for nine hours on Tuesday and called Jha for interrogation again on Wednesday.
The 2000 batch IAS officer was produced before a special PMLA court in Ranchi, where the ED asked for 12 days remand.
The ED probe pertains to a money laundering case wherein a former junior engineer of the Jharkhand government, Ram Binod Prasad Sinha, was held by the agency in June 2020.