VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, May 20: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday got the police remand of IAS Pooja Singhal for another five days. The order was passed by the special PMLA court of Prabhat Kumar Sharma. The court directed the ED to send the chartered accountant Suman Singh to judicial custody.
The ED told the court that she daily complains about medical problems and uneasiness. The ED said that the agency arranges medical facilities and tests which consumes times of remanded period. It spoils much time of the custody period and interrogation is affected.
The ED said that it requires an extension of her police remand as the source of the unaccounted cash is unknown. There is a lot of data retrieved from digital devices and documents recovered during raids that are needed to be examined.
The ED said it summoned the district mining officer of three districts namely Dumka, Pakur, and Sahibganj. The district mining officer of Pakur Pradeep Sah and K. K. Kisku of Dumka joined the probe after being summoned by the ED. But the mining officer of Sahibganj Bibhuti Kumar has yet not complied with the summons of the ED. The ED informed the court that Bibhuti Kumar has sought an extension on the ground that he is busy with the marriage ceremony of his daughter.
On this, the court asked the ED’s special prosecutor BMP Singh whether or not the ED had some other way to bring him for questioning. The ED said that Pooja Singhal will have to be confronted with the mining officer of two more districts for which remand is required. The ED said that she is still not revealing about assets raised by her besides how the Pulse Hospital was constructed which is owned by her husband Abhishek Jha.
The defence lawyer Vishwajeet Mukherjee said that she is being subjected to a media trial. Her lawyer said that every detail about her including her health status is in the media. This is an infringement of the right of privacy and dignity of a woman and the media trial should be stopped.
