Ranchi : Chief Engineer of Rural Development Department of Jharkhand Virendra Ram has long been under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) whom the agency arrested on Thursday intervening night.
The ED said that Virendra Ram used to get 0.3 percent cut/commission from contractors and companies for the total amount of the contract. Besides, some top politicians and bureaucrats were involved in the scam along with him. Virendra Ram allegedly acquired assets worth over Rs 100 crores.
The PMLA investigation revealed that huge amounts were deposited in the bank accounts of relatives of Virendra Ram. This includes the joint account (2577257010412) of Virendra Ram and his wife Rajkumari to the tune of Rs. 9.30 crore during the period FY 2014- 15 to FY 2018-19. In the account of his father Genda Ram an amount to the tune of Rs.4.5 crores was deposited in a span of one month from 21st December 2022 till 23rd January 2023. All these huge sums were transferred from the accounts of individuals who are either employees or relatives of Mukesh and Mohit Mittal who are Chartered Accountants of the accused engineer.
The ED took up this case in 2020 when it lodged an ECIR bearing No. ECIR/RNSZO/ 16/2020 in September 2020. The ECIR was based on the FIR bearing No 13/2019 registered by the ACB Jamshedpur dated November 13, 2019 under sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC. The FIR was lodged against Suresh Prasad Verma and Alok Ranjan.
Suresh Prasad Verma was the Junior Engineer working in the Road Construction Department and the ACB lodged the FIR on the basis of the complaint of contractor Vikas Kumar Sharma of Jai Mata Di Enterprises.
He alleged that SP Verma had demanded a bribe for the amount of Rs. 28,000/- against clearing the remaining due amount of Rs. 4.54 lakh to be paid out of the total bill amount of Rs. 11.54 lakh as per the tender requirement.
Subsequently, the ACB laid a trap and caught Suresh Prasad Verma red handed taking partial bribe for the amount of Rs. 10,000/- from the contractor and arrested him. The ACB conducted a search on the residential premises of Pushpa Verma, wife of SP Verma and seized cash of Rs. 63,870 along with household jewellery, few property documents and bank documents from the space owned by Pushpa Verma.
Pushpa Verma had rented out a part of her residence to Alok Ranjan where a huge cash Rs. 2.67 crore was seized. Subsequently, Alok Ranjan was arrested as he could not give any satisfactory answers regarding the seized cash as he had no legitimate source of income as he was studying law.
The ACB Jamshedpur filed a charge sheet against Suresh Prasad Verma and Alok Ranjan. The ACB Jamshedpur examined neighbours of Suresh Prasad Verma, also examined the rent agreement with Alok Ranjan and interrogated SP Verma and Alok Ranjan in police custody. But the ownership of Rs. 2.67 crore could not be linked to SP Verma. Further, his family members claimed that the owner of that cash belonged to Virendra Ram and alleged Virendra Ram himself and his wife Rajkumari used to visit Alok Ranjan at the rented premises regularly and Alok Ranjan is cousin of Virendra Ram.
When the ED took up this case it was revealed that Alok Ranjan was only safekeeping the ill-gotten money acquired by Virendra Ram. Further, his bank accounts and his family were analyzed and it was revealed that they have huge credits in their bank accounts much more than their legal source of income. In the statement recorded during the course of search proceedings, they could not explain the source of their income, which they have declared in their Income Tax Returns.
It is also gathered that Virendra Ram acquired movable and immovable assets in the name of his father Genda Ram, wife Rajkumari and other family members, which is disproportionate to the income earned by Virendra Ram and his family members.