The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will probe into alleged irregularities by former Jharkhand chief minister and BJP national vice-president Raghubar Das and others in the appointment of Meinhardt Singapore Private Limited as a consultant for the Ranchi sewerage-drainage project in 2005.

“Chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday evening ordered an inquiry from the ACB on allegation of irregularities done by Raghubar Das, who was then state urban development minister and others, in the appointment of Meinhardt as a consultant for the drainage and sewerage project of Ranchi.

“The probe will be conducted under the relevant section of the laws for alleged corruption, conspiracy and irregularities in line with the recommendation of the chairperson of the common purpose committee of state Assembly, Saryu Roy, and Jharkhand High Court directive,” said a communiqué issued by the chief minister’s office.

Jamshedpur East MLA Saryu Roy, who defeated five-time legislator Das in the December 2019 Assembly polls, had on August 1 this year written to the chief minister about non-compliance of the high court order issued in September 2018 on the irregularities in appointment of Meinhardt as a consultant of the project.

“The high court had in 2018 clearly asked the state government to take a decision on this matter as expeditiously as possible on the basis of the preliminary inquiry done by state vigilance bureau. But the erstwhile government had sat on the high Court ruling,” Roy had said.

The MLA had said that the government had not taken action on the report of the technical committee of the vigilance bureau and five engineers-in-chief of the government which had held Das responsible for the irregularities in appointing Meinhardt as a consultant way back in 2005.

Roy had been cornering Das on this issue even during election campaigning in 2019. In July this year, Roy had released a book on the irregularities done in Meinhardt’s appointment as a consultant.