LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, Dec. 30: The Hemant Soren government has been maintaining a mysterious silence over taking action against his former OSD Gopal Ji Tiwari and jailed IAS officer Pooja Singhal for their alleged role in the corruption.
A state service officer Gopal Ji Tiwari has been promoted to the IAS cadre whereas Pooja Singhal is in jail after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested her in May this year in MNREGA scam.
Notably in the case of Gopal Ji Tiwari, the state Anti-Corruption Bureau headed by the Chief Minister had lodged a preliminary enquiry against him in July 2020 for his alleged corruption. Later on, the ACB sought permission from the CM to prosecute him. But the permission is yet to be granted.
In the case of Pooja Singhal, the ED months back made two separate recommendations to the state government to prosecute her in the MNREGA scam as well as in the illegal stone mining scam. The ED also submitted its investigation reports to the state government showing involvement of Pooja Singhal in both the scams. According to sources, the matter is under consideration of Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
In the MNREGA scam, the ED has also submitted a charge sheet against Pooja Singhal and her husband and attached her properties. In the illegal mining scam, which is worth Rs 1000 crore the ED has stated that Pooja Singhal as the mining secretary had played a key role.
In the illegal stone mining scam, the ED arrested and charge-sheeted Pankaj Mishra who is the MLA representative of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. Coincidentally, Gopal Ji Tiwari is the brother-in-law of Pankaj Mishra.
Intriguingly, the name of Gopal Ji Tiwari has surfaced in the chargesheet of the ED in the illegal mining case. However, there appears nothing incriminating against him in the chargesheet. Ravi Kejriwal, who is the former JMM treasurer and a family friend of Hemant Soren has mentioned Gopal Ji Tiwari in his statement. Ravi Kejriwal was expelled from the party in August 2020 which surprised all.
“I was expelled from the party for reasons best known to Shri Hemant Soren. Along with me Shri Gopalji Tiwari, the then OSD of Shri Hemant Soren was also removed and an enquiry was also recommended to shunt him,” Ravi Kejriwal stated. He further stated that Gopal Ji Tiwari was the OSD of CM and brother-in-law of Pankaj Mishra.
Gopal Ji Tiwari served as Officer on Special Duty of the chief minister for a couple of months. But he had to quit as the chief minister apparently came to know about his alleged corrupt practices. But in July 2020, he requested the CM to relieve him as OSD as he came to know that the CM has received complaints about his alleged disproportionate assets. The ACB has concluded that there was enough material evidence against Gopal Ji Tiwari to start a criminal proceeding. Since he is a government official a permission for the prosecution is required.
On June 19, 2020, Jharkhand High Court lawyer Rajiv Kumar had submitted some documents related to properties allegedly raised by Gopal Ji Tiwari. The lawyer claimed that Gopal Ji Tiwari misused his office and raised disproportionate assets worth around Rs 21.55 crore.
