VIJAY
Ranchi, Feb. 25: The alleged friends and protectors of Jharkhand’s billionaire engineer Virendra Ram are under the lens of Enforcement Directorate (ED) who saved him all these years from preliminary enquiry of the Anti-Corruption Bureau despite the investigation having established that Rs. 2.67 crore cash recovered during the 2019 raid in Jamshedpur belonged to him.
The ED arrested Virendra Ram a couple of days back following a nationwide raid during the course of investigation of that particular case of trap followed by a raid which the ACB had lodged against engineer Suresh Prasad Verma on November 13, 2019.
Cash to the tune of Rs 2.67 crore was recovered from the room of Alok Ranjan who stayed in the premises of Suresh Prasad Verma. Alok Ranjan is the relative of Virendra Ram and the investigation established that the cash belonged to him and Alok Ranjan was only safely keeping this.
But despite this fact no preliminary enquiry/ FIR was registered against Virendra Ram. It is learnt that the ACB had also sought a permission from the Jharkhand government to start an inquiry against him.
The ED took up this case in 2020 when it lodged an ECIR bearing No. ECIR/RNSZO/ 16/2020 in September 2020.
“There was a complaint against the said engineer Suresh Prasad Verma. His premise was raided and cash recovered from the very room where Alok Ranjan was staying. Suresh Verma and Alok Ranjan were prosecuted. Investigation established connection of the cash with Virendra Ram. But no action, no inquiry, no FIR against Virendra Ram. This needed to be investigated,” well-placed sources said.
Jharkhand was undergoing assembly election when the ACB seized cash and lodged an FIR. Raghubar Das led BJP-Ajsu Party government lost the election and Hemant Soren leading the JMM-Congress-RJD combine formed the government.
Now, the ED has asked the ACB to provide all other details of this case and whether any FIR was lodged against Virendra Ram. The ED wants to examine whether there was a legal hurdle in lodging any FIR against him or the sufficient evidence was lacking.
The ED secured his five days police remand. Virendra Ram has confessed that he used to receive 0.3 percent of the tender amount from the companies which were awarded tender, as commission.
Virendra Ram originally belonged to the water resource department but he held the post of chief engineer of the rural development department also. The ED has sought details of tenders related to water resource department, rural development department and rural road construction which were executed by Virendra Ram.
During the raid, the ED recovered multiple pen-drives containing details of tenders of the last 10 years. Sources said that Virendra Ram is slowly disclosing details of how tenders were managed and awarded. He has disclosed names of some officials and private persons also who were involved in managing tenders.
