VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Jan. 19: Sahibganj district mining officer Bibhuti Kumar is said to have tried to make the Enforcement Directorate (ED) believe that he had no association with Suman Singh, the chartered accountant of IAS Pooja Singhal except he supplied ghee to Suman Singh on some occasions.
But he ultimately accepted having paid Rs. 25 lakh to then the mining secretary Pooja Singhal through Suman Singh as her share in the illegal stone mining. But the ED suspects the amount is more than that. He revealed all these when he was summoned for questioning in connection with the Khunti MNREGA scam after the ED arrested Pooja Singhal and her chartered accountant.
Investigation reveals how Bibhuti Kumar tried to fool the ED when he was confronted with some of his chats with Suman Singh related to cash transactions. In one of the chats dated 11th December, 2021 Bibhuti Kumar writes that 20 kg has been delivered and rest will be delivered this week. Mining mafias used kg as code word for amount in Lakh.
When the ED asked him about such coded chats, he said that kg did not refer to any amount. Bibhuti Kumar insisted that Suman Singh wanted some pure ghee and on his request he supplied 20 kg ghee. He said that on a couple of occasions in the past he had provided ghee to Suman Singh. But the ED caught him lying and asked whether he carried ghee from Sahibganj to Ranchi for Suman Singh or if he runs a dairy.
The investigating officer then cautioned him not to misguide the ED and said that the agency has evidence against. On this, Bibhuti Kumar accepted that on twice he paid the amount to Pooja Singhal through Suman Singh.
Well-placed sources said that Bibhuti Kumar is among the mining officers whose role in the illegal mining is doubted. The ED has even sent a report to the Jharkhand government and asked to prosecute Pooja Singhal and many other mining officers for committing a scam.
