VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Nov 28: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to attach Pulse Super Speciality Hospital and other assets of Jharkhand cadre IAS Pooja Singhal and others by the next week.
Well-placed sources dropped thick hints that the agency has identified such movable and immovable assets of the MNREGA scam accused which were raised out of proceeds of crime.
The Pulse Super Speciality Hospital belonging to Pooja Singhal’s husband Abhishek Kumar Jha is one such prime property. The MNREGA scam worth Rs 18.06 Crore is related to the period when Pooja Singhal was Deputy Commissioner in Khunti district period 16th February 2009 to 19th July 2010. She was the principal authority for sanctioning funds for different development projects.
The ED arrested Pooja Singhal in May and filed a prosecution complaint against her, husband Abhishek Kumar Jha, chartered accountant Suman Kumar Singh, besides engineers and officials of Khunti district namely Ram Binod Prasad Sinha, Jai Kishore Choudhary, Shashi Prakash and Rajendra Kumar Jain. Properties belonging to other accused will be attached.
The hospital building was constructed by M/s Unique Construction. Akshat Katyal, one of the partners in this construction company, said that he received Rs. two Crore in cash from Pooja Singhal and Abhishek Jha at their residence in 2020 for the purpose of purchasing construction material and payment to labourers. On the scrutiny, the company is found to receive a total payment of Rs. 6.19 Crore.
Suman Singh too confessed that on a couple of occasions, he gave cash amounts to the tune of Rs.10 Lakh four to five times, at the cash counter of Pulse Hospital to make false bills to inflate the receipt of pulse hospital. Therefore, this was basically done to accommodate the ill-earned money of Pooja Singhal in Pulse Hospital and project the same profit earned from Hospital as untainted.
Pooja Singhal and Abhishek Jha were married in June 2011, and it was made an occasion to launder money. The ED said that before marriage Pooja Singhal used to deposit tainted money in her own bank account. And after their marriage, the cash deposits were made in the accounts of Abhishek Jha, and later after the incorporation of M/s Pulse Sanjeevani Healthcare Private Limited cash was adjusted in the construction, procurement, and accounts of Pulse Diagnostic as well as Pulse Sanjeevani Super Speciality Hospital. The ED has stated that from FY 2012-13 onward the total credit in the bank accounts of M/s Pulse Sanjeevani Healthcare Private Limited was more than the total turnover of the company in the respective FY.
Even the hospital and its assets were undervalued. The hospital is actually worth Rs. 42.85 Crore but was undervalued to Rs. 13.19 Crore. Further the actual valuation of the Diagnostic space on the 1st floor, the Orchid building was not disclosed. The value of this property as of February 2012 should be at Rs 2.70 Crore while the same was purchased at Rs. 1 Crore. Similarly, plant and machinery are shown worth Rs 26.44 Crores while the actual value is Rs 31.16 Crore. A payment of Rs Three Crore was made to the city-based builder for the purchase of land where the hospital is situated.
Abhishek Jha on the other hand claimed that a part of money infused in M/s Pulse Sanjeevani Healthcare Pvt. Ltd was part of his income which he earned in Australia. He said that he brought Rs 31.89 Lakh cash from Australia.
The ED claimed that his Commonwealth bank account (commonwealth bank account (A/c 06290310429249) was a parking place of the illegal money earned by his IAS wife Pooja Singhal. Abhishek Jha claimed that he got a good amount out of his marriage gift and income in Australia. The ED junked both of his claims.
The ED detected huge cash around Rs. 70 Lakh deposited in his Indian bank accounts namely ICICI, DBS and SBI during the financial year 2010-11 and 2011-12. The ED has said that his Australia story is an afterthought to hide the crime.
The ED is set to attach Rs. 19.76 Crores and several high-end vehicles recovered from the premises of Suman Singh.
