India News | Highly Placed Politicians, Bureaucrats in J'khand Get Huge Cash Commissions for Awarding Tenders to Companies: ED

Ranchi, Feb 23 (PTI) "Highly placed" bureaucrats and politicians in Jharkhand are part of a "nexus" that gets huge cash commissions for awarding tenders to private companies for projects in the state, the ED informed a local court on Thursday after it arrested a chief engineer of the rural development department on money laundering charges.

Veerendra Kumar Ram (56) was arrested by the federal probe agency post midnight after a long questioning session at its office here.

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The Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court here sent him to five days of custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The agency had raided the premises of Ram, his chartered accountant Mukesh Mittal, and their associates on February 21 as part of a money laundering complaint filed by it in September 2020 based on an FIR of the Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

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Ram, who is an engineer in the state's water resource department, is serving on deputation as the chief engineer of the rural development department.

The ACB complaint was filed against a junior engineer of the road construction department and Ram's cousin Alok Ranjan.

The ED told the court that an analysis of Ram's and his family's bank accounts showed that they got "huge credits much more than their legal source of income".

It alleged that Ram "acquired" movable and immovable assets in the name of his father, wife and other family members, and these were "disproportionate" to the family's income.

The agency claimed that Ram recorded his statement with the ED saying "he used to receive 0.3 per cent of tender amount from companies, which were awarded tender, as commission".

The ED informed the court through its remand note that Ram and other unnamed witnesses recorded their statements with it saying the chief engineer "played a pivotal role in managing the tenders and allocation of work to private entities and the percentage of commission is distributed in a mechanised manner up to higher ups of government, including highly placed bureaucrats and politicians".

It said the name of "senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged" in the case and this is being investigated.

"Certain highly placed officials/politicians are involved in this nexus and the huge payments were usually received in cash which were later laundered which needs to be unearthed," the ED told the court.

The perusal of statement of various witnesses and Ram established that a huge amount of proceeds of crime was "integrated in mainstream economy through fake/fictitious entities and shell companies and various high value cash transactions were made by his CA on his (Ram's) behalf", it said.

The ED has seized seven luxury vehicles in the name of family members and companies of Ram. Rs 40 lakh cash and jewellery worth more than Rs 1.51 crore were seized in raids at his house, the agency said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)