On Tuesday (ED), the Enforcement Directorate arrested Sanjiv Lal, personal secretary to state rural development minister Alamgir Alam, and Lal’s maid Jahangir Alam. The cash seizure was for ₹36 crore in Ranchi, Jharkhand. They went to a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act ( PMLA), and the court gave them 6 days of ED custody.
On Monday, the ED raided the property of both Sanjiv Lal and his housekeeper Alamgir Alam on the premises in Jharkhand’s Ranchi, which recovered cash. They found and recorded a total of ₹35.23 crore in cash during the seizure. The ED found ₹10.05 lakh at Lal’s premises, including ₹32.20 crore at Jahangir Alam’s flat in Ranchi, Jharkhand, and ₹3 crore from another location.
It took around 12 hours and six counting machines to count the cash back to the probe agency—official communication between the ED and the state government with the cash stash was also recovered. In action, the ED conducted fresh raids in Ranchi and found approximately ₹1.5 crore at Rajiv Kumar Singh’s place as the contractor.
On Tuesday morning, two Individuals were presented in special PMLA court and placed in ED custody for six days.ED stated that officials from the rural development department, at all levels, are most likely involved in an illegal Cash payment network.
According to the ED rural development department, even the secretary of a Jharkhand Minister was also involved in this nexus.
The secretary collected commissions on tenders for influential individuals.
Alamgir Alam has distanced himself from Lal’s activities and said that the secretary had previously worked with other ministers in the state government as well. Sanjiv Lal will take responsibility for collecting commissions on behalf of some influential individuals and play a crucial role in overseeing tenders and commission collection from engineers.
