The Enforcement Directorate sleuths on Wednesday reached the Project Bhavan in Jharkhand capital Ranchi and inspected documents at the rural development department office as part of a money laundering investigation in which it recently seized huge cash, the official sources said.

The Project Bhavan houses offices of various state government departments.

The inspection and search operation was carried out in the presence of OSD (officer on special duty) Sanjiv Lal to Congress minister Alamgir Alam and the OSD’s domestic help Jahangir Alam.

Incidentally, Lal and Alam had been arrested on Monday night on money laundering charges by the ED after raids conducted at multiple locations led to seizure of around ₹34.50 crore in cash and on Tuesday the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court granted them seven day’s remand to the ED.

While seeking their remand in a special PMLA court in Ranchi, the agency has submitted that names of senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged as part of the probe.

The agency also alleged that “officials from top to bottom” of the rural development department were involved in a money laundering nexus. Alam is the state’s rural development minister.

In its remand application submitted to the court, the central probe agency had
said: “It is ascertained that Sanjiv Lal takes care of the collection of commission on behalf of some influential persons and 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.”

“Further, during the investigation, names of senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged which are being investigated…. several officials from top to bottom of rural development department are involved in this nexus and the huge payments were usually received in cash which were later laundered, which needs to be unearthed,” the application stated.

The case is linked to the arrested Jharkhand water resources department engineer Virendra Ram.

The ED said that Ram was arrested on February 23 when he was on deputation as chief engineer to the rural works department and the rural development department.

The central agency claimed that Ram allegedly used to collect commissions in the allocation of tender and execution of work and a fixed share of 1.5 per cent was distributed among his seniors and politicians.

Alam has denied any role in the cash haul and said that the personal secretary had served earlier under two BJP ministers too.

The Congress minister said that the secretary was appointed only on the basis of his experience.