Most of cash seized from me belongs to IAS officer Singhal, CA tells ED

Ranchi: Chartered Accountant (CA) Suman Kumar, during interrogation, has claimed that most of the cash recovered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 6 belongs to IAS officer Pooja Singhal. The ED on Thursday submitted documents, comprising details of the revelations made by the CA, to the CBI-PMLA court in Ranchi. Vinod Kumar, assistant director of ED's regional office in Ranchi, has provided details of the interrogation to the court. According to this, the CA has told the ED that on the instructions of Singhal, he had given Rs 3 crore cash to a big builder to buy the land of Pulse Hospital owned by her family.

The court has also been apprised about the bribery case linked to Singhal. According to this, an officer accused of the MGNREGA scam in Khunti has informed the ED that when Singhal was the Deputy Commissioner (DC) in Khunti. "The accused Junior Engineer Ram Binod Prasad Sinha was paying bribe to Pooja Singhal. He has confessed that on four occasions he had seen the accused Junior Engineer handing over bags containing 18-20 gaddis (bundles) of notes of Rs 500 denomination."

The amount was allegedly given in lieu of irregularities in MNREGA schemes. The ED has said that when Singhal was posted as DC in Khunti, as well as Chatra, there were large-scale irregularities in MNREGA. According to the bank statements of Pooja Singhal and her husband Abhishek Jha, perused by the ED, Rs 1.43 crore, in excess to Singhal's salary, was deposited in her account during her posting as DC. Citing these revelations, the ED had sought 12 days of custody of Singhal, on which the court has granted five-day custody of the accused to the ED.

IANS