LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, Nov.14: The Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will probe into how the assets of five ministers in the Raghubar Das administration rose by 200 to 1100 percent over a five-year period (2014 to 2019).
Following a complaint in this respect to the Cabinet Secretariat and Monitoring Department with a request to record an FIR in the subject, Chief Minister Hemant Soren ordered a preliminary enquiry against them, and the preliminary enquiry determined the accusation to be genuine.
The five former ministers include Amar Kumar Bauri, Neera Yadav, Louis Marandi, Randhir Singh and Neelkanth Singh Munda. Four out of five former ministers are currently BJP MLAs.
Official sources informed that after the chief minister’s order, now the ACB will file separate PEs against the five former ministers. After getting the evidence in the investigation, FIR will be registered against all.
“This is the first time that the Hemant Soren government of Jharkhand has ordered the ACB to take action against the five former ministers simultaneously. However, it is not yet known what and in what manner there are allegations of corruption against the five former ministers. It is also not known how much the five former ministers have earned illegally,” the official said.
However, Pankaj Yadav, in his petition in the Jharkhand High Court, had already revealed the assets the five former ministers allegedly accumulated by them. Although Bauri’s assets were listed in the PIL as being 7.33 lakh in 2014, they rose to Rs 89.41 lakh in 2019. Similar to this, Singh’s assets climbed from Rs 78.92 lakhs in 2014 to Rs 5.06 crores in 2019.
Neera Yadav’s assets were listed in the PIL as being Rs 80.59 lakhs in 2014 and increasing to 3.65 crores in 2019. In the years 2014 and 2019, Marandi’s wealth increased from Rs 2.25 crores to Rs 9.06 crores. Similar to this, Munda’s assets were Rs 1.46 crores in 2018 and rose to Rs 4.35 crores in 2019.
