Ranchi (Jharkhand): After the arrest of IAS officer Puja Singhal on May 11, sleuths from the Enforcement Directorate grilled her for the second consecutive day on Friday. She was earlier interrogated by the ED officials on Thursday also in connection with the money laundering case.

The arrested IAS Puja Singhal was quizzed with CA Sumar Kumar and builder Alok Saravgi. Before the commencement of the interrogation by the ED officials, Puja Singhal underwent a medical examination, said police sources. On Thursday, the owner of the Saravgi builders, Alok Saravgi was interrogated by the ED officials for several hours. Saravgi was asked to confess details of the ill-gotten money trail as well as its transaction between the trio, said the source.

On Tuesday, the federal agency recorded the officer's statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The officer was present for about nine hours at its office. The statement of her businessman husband Abhishek Jha has also been recorded by the agency, as it carried out some fresh raids in Kolkata in connection with the case. The questioning of the couple comes after the ED conducted raids against the bureaucrat, her husband, their linked entities, and others on May 6 in Jharkhand and a few other locations. The agency has also seized four SUVs -- a Jaguar, a Fortuner, and two Honda brand cars -- which were in the name of arrested CA Suman Kumar or of persons linked to him.

The Enforcement Directorate's investigation against Singhal and others pertains to a money-laundering case in which a former junior engineer in the Jharkhand government, Ram Binod Prasad Sinha, was arrested by the agency on June 17, 2020, from West Bengal after he was booked by the agency under the PMLA in 2012 after studying the FIRs of the state vigilance bureau against him.

Sinha was booked by the vigilance bureau under criminal sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) pertaining to cheating and corruption for allegedly defrauding public money and investing it in his own name as well as in the name of his family members while working as a junior engineer from April 1, 2008, to March 21, 2011. The said money was earmarked for the execution of government projects under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in the Khunti district, the agency had earlier said. Sinha told the ED that "he paid five percent commission (out of the defrauded funds) to the district administration."

During the period, the ED had alleged, charges of "irregularities" were made against Singhal while she served as the deputy commissioner/district magistrate of Chatra, Khunti, and Palamu between 2007 and 2013. The agency arrested Kumar in this case on May 7 after seizing over Rs 17 crore in cash from his premises. He is in ED custody till May 11. The ED probes his alleged links with the IAS officer and her husband.

The agency had claimed, in a remand note presented to the court for Kumar, that Singhal and her husband received "huge" cash deposits -- to the tune of Rs 1.43 crore -- over and above her salary in their accounts, during the period she faced charges of irregularities while being posted as the DM of various districts in the state. The ED also told a special PMLA court in Ranchi that the IAS officer allegedly transferred Rs 16.57 lakh from her "personal account" to those controlled or owned by her CA Kumar.