LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, Feb. 2: Shashi Prakash, an accused of Khunti district MNREGA scam along with IAS officer Pooja Singhal, surrendered today before the special PMLA Court of Prabhat Kumar Sharma. The court forwarded him to 14 days judicial custody in this case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The ED in July last year had filed a prosecution complaint against Pooja Singhal, the then junior engineer of Khunti district board Ram Binod Sinha, the then assistant engineer Rajendra Kumar Jain, executive engineer Jai Kishore Choudhary and executive engineer of special division of Khunti Shashi Prakash.
The matter is related to embezzlement of Rs. 18.6 crore in the name of the execution of MNREGA and other schemes by Pooja Singhal and others when Pooja Singhal was the Deputy Commissioner of Khunti district from 16th February 2009 to 19th July 2010. She was the principal authority for sanctioning funds for different development projects.
It is alleged that Ram Binod Prasad Sinha in connivance with his senior officers, R. K. Jain, Jai Kishore Chaudhary, Shashi Prakash and Pooja Singhal siphoned off funds meant for many rural projects. Shashi Prakash was the concerned Executive Engineer for District Board.
Shashi Prakash was basically Assistant Engineer in Chaibasa district, but he was given charge of District Engineer/Executive Engineer of the District Board in Khunti District on deputation basis. He was responsible for distribution of projects and works among his Assistant Engineers, and to supervise the project works for their timely completion and quality control.
Shashi Prakash bypassed the proper channel for transfer of funds and directly gave project related advance funds to Ram Binod Prasad Sinha and not through R.K. Jain. Ram Binod Prasad Sinha used to give him commission to directly get project related funds. Ram Binod Prasad Sinha confessed that he used to give two percent as commission to Shashi Prakash.
In total, Rs. 24 crores were released to Ram Binod Prasad Sinha, and out of the same, Rs. 18.06 crore was assessed as a defalcated amount by the audit committee constituted by the successor Deputy Commissioner.
In the statement given before the ED, Shashi Prakash claimed that he was under pressure from Pooja Singhal to transfer the advances to Ram Binod Prasad Sinha. He told the ED that Ram Binod Prasad Sinha used to tell him that Pooja Singhal also got 5 % as commission of the disbursed fund. The ED said that Shashi Prakash directly indulged and knowingly assisted in the offence of money laundering, and committed an offence of money laundering. Notably, the ED took up all 16 FIRs for investigation which were registered against the Junior Engineer, Assistant Engineer and Executive Engineer.
