SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, Oct. 11: Jharkhand Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan today said that there is no provision under Section 66 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Act requiring the State government to provide feedback or share its findings with the ED.
He opined that Section 66 envisages only a unidirectional flow of information from the ED to the State government or any other agencies and does not establish any reverse mechanism for a follow-up on the basis of such information.
The AG shared his views with this writer while referring to a letter, quoted in a section of media a couple of days back, seeking feedback from the state government about the action taken by it on the basis of the information shared by the ED against Pooja Singhal, Rajeev Arun Ekka (both IAS officers), Chief Engineer Virendra Ram and others during the investigation into money laundering allegations.
The ED is said to have written a letter to the Chief Secretary in this regard and sent the list of 10 cases shared under Section 66(2) of PMLA, saying that the agency has not been informed about any action taken by the government in these cases.
.Under Section 66(2) of the PMLA, the law stipulates that if the ED is of the opinion that any other prevailing law has been contravened, it shall share the information with the concerned agency for necessary action. This provision was introduced through the Finance Act, 2018 mandating the ED to share pertinent information with other agencies or authorities.
The advocate general said that the provision to seek feedback is absent from the PMLA for obvious reasons. “It would result in an encroachment on the powers of such agencies who need to act independently and as per the law governing their functions alone,” Ranjan added.
Efforts by this writer to get a view of the ED on this issue failed.
Notably, the information shared by the ED under Section 66(2) of PMLA includes the MNREGA scam, illegal mining, Rajeev Arun Ekka case, purchase and sale of government and army land by forging documents
The ED first shared information related to money laundering done by Pooja Singhal in the MNREGA scam in November 2022. In December 2022, a copy of the order to confiscate property belonging to Pooja Singhal was also given to the state government. The ED raided the premises of the then Chief Engineer of the Rural Development Department Virendra Ram during the investigation into commission fraud and laundering in tenders. Also, information related to the facts found in the investigation and the property acquired from the commission amount was given to the government.
During the investigation into illegal mining, the ED along with the administrative officials of Sahibganj district inspected the stone quarries. It also informed the government about the evidence and information found during the investigation regarding illegal mining.
The cases in which ED shared information with Jharkhand govt
- Related to Chief Engineer Virendra Ram and his colleagues
- Buying and selling of land with the help of fake documents
- Fraud committed by Shyam Singh, Vinod Singh, Ravi Singh Bhatia in the case of Hehal Mauza land.
- Charge sheet related to Jagat Bandhu Tea State filed in court
- Fake stamp made from the designation of officers from the house of land traders
- Joint investigation report with administrative officials of the district in the case of Sahibganj illegal mining.
- Regarding the role of Pooja Singhal
- Related to the confiscation of property worth Rs 82.77 crore belonging to Pooja Singhal
- Adjudicating Authority’s order on confiscation of property belonging to Pooja Singhal
- Related to Vishal Chaudhary and Rajeev Arun Ekka
