RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, May 7: The JMM wants former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das to come under the ambit of the ED probe saying it was during the regime of Das when Pooja Singhal was given a clean chit from allegations of corruption against her on the recommendation of Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma and another senior IAS officer A.P.Singh.
JMM legislator Sudivya Kumar Sonu raised the demand during a press conference organised by the party at its state headquarters at Bariatu a day after the ED raided different locations of principal secretary Singhal and her close associates, including her husband, father-in-law and chartered accountant and recovered cash in crores.
“When Arjun Munda was chief minister, he ordered departmental proceedings against Singhal but when Das became chief minister Singhal was given a clean chit on the recommendation of chief secretary Verma and a senior IAS A.P.Singh in February 2017. If they had continued departmental proceedings such a situation would have not come. Das should be made a co-accused in the case,” Sonu said.
Sonu while raising the demand of making Das co-accused left no stone unturned to target former chief minister Babulal Marandi.
“It was Babulal Marandi who had raised the alarm when he was a JVM leader. It appears that now after he joined the BJP he has got his share. He is the same person who first sold his MLA, then self, and then demanded a probe. He is no more a political character but a political trader,” Sonu said.
JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya was also present alongwith Sonu during the press conference. He said that the way the BJP portrayed the ED raid suggested that the action was taken on any corruption done during the tenure of the JMM rule in the mining department in the state but the fact coming so far suggests that it had a connection with MNREGA scam, though the ED is yet to come out with any official statement in this regard.
Asked why Singhal was given charges when the government had an idea about her corrupt background, Sonu said: “How come an IAS officer be allowed to rest when there are only 14 secretary rank IAS officers in the state and the number of departments is as many as 32 and that is when the IAS officer has been given a clean chit in all the charges of corruption against her,” he questioned.
Bhattacharya during the press conference also took dig at BJP state president and Rajya Sabha member Deepak Prakash saying the latter’s press conference on ED raid was like “Chor Machaye Shor.” There is no BJP to clear its stand on corruption. “The BJP should say whether the action of ED is right or the action of Raghubar Das was right,” Bhattacharya said.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren last night had after the ED raid said that he was not afraid of the action. Bhattacharya said: “CM’s comment was not ED’s raid against corrupt officers but on the tweet of Nishikant Dubey, who after ED raid started setting a narrative that it was in connection with irregularities in mining lease.”
