RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, July 19: Suspended senior IAS officer of Jharkhand, Pooja Singhal, will have to remain more days in jail as the special PMLA court deferred hearing in her bail petition till July 26.
The development took place as advocate Bishwajit Mukherjee appeared on behalf of Singhal and demanded a certified copy of the charge sheet the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed against Singhal in the court and the ED asked for time for the same.
The charge sheet runs into 5000 pages including necessary documents related to the case.
Singhal was arrested by the ED on May 11 in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged embezzlement of MGNREGA funds in Khunti district of Jharkhand. She had been arrested after interrogation for two consecutive days.
The arrest took place after on May 5 the ED raided 25 places of Pooja Singhal and recovered Rs 19.31 crore from Suman Singh’s location. Singh is the chartered accountant of Singhal’s husband.
On June 28, Singhal filed a bail application through her advocate Mukherjee stating that she is not keeping well and needs better medical treatment.
On July 5, the ED filed a charge sheet against her and others. The probe agency submitted the 5,000-page charge sheet. The ED requested the court to take cognizance of the charge sheet and issue the process for a trial in the case.
