VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Feb. 3: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has expedited documentation of evidence and materials against senior IAS officer Pooja Singhal to examine whether or not she was involved or responsible for the MNREGA scam in Khunti worth over Rs 18.76 crore.
The ED is conducting a probe against her on the instruction of the Jharkhand High Court after a Public Interest Litigation was filed by one Arun Kumar Dubey. The petitioner represented by lawyer Rajiv Kumar alleged the probe agencies of shielding Singhal.
During the hearing held in June last year the bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice S. N. Prasad had directed the ED and the state Anti-Corruption Bureau to file a reply on the status of the probe against Singhal and material evidence.
While the ED is doing documentation to find her possible links with the main accused of the scam Ram Binod Sinha, a well-informed source claimed that the ED has already filed its reply in the High Court. The source added that fresh facts have emerged.
Singhal was the Deputy Commissioner of Khunti from February 2009 till July 2010 and she was also the district programme coordinator of the MNREGA when the scam took place.
Ram Binod Sinha posted as Junior Engineer in Khunti Zila Parishad emerged as the mastermind of the scam. He had been arrested and booked in as many as 16 cases. Later on, these cases were transferred to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
The scam was going unchecked till the time the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance, red-flagged two high-value cash transactions in two accounts of Ram Binod Sinha which was about close to a crore.
Since it was a case of scheduled offense, the ED instituted inquiries into the scam. In 2020, the ED got him arrested and so far the agency attached his properties worth around Rs four crore.
