ED seizes Rs 34 Cr from Jharkhand Minister Alamgir Alam’s residence, arrests PS, his domestic help

RANCHI-  The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Jharkhand Congress Minister Alamgir Alam’s personal secretary (PS) Sanjiv Lal and the officer’s domestic help following raids conducted at various premises on Monday which led to the seizure of around Rs 34.50 crore in cash, media report said.

The videos of raids shared on social media showed wads of currency notes in a room allegedly belonging to the domestic help.

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The searches are linked to a money laundering case against former chief engineer Virendra Kumar Ram of the state Rural Development Department. He was arrested by the ED last year.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the ED seizures during his election rally in Andhra Pradesh’s Vemagiri. “Why is it that those from whom mounds of cash are recovered are close to the Congress’s first family? Was the seized cash meant for supply somewhere? Is it that the Congress’s first family has created warehouses of black money? The country wants to know from Congress’s Shehzada,” he said, in an apparent jibe at Rahul Gandhi.

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The Jharkhand Congress had earlier pointed out that Sanjiv Lal had also worked as the personal secretary of former BJP minister C P Singh. Lal has been Alam’s personal secretary since the latter became a Cabinet minister in 2019.

The party said the ED action was timed to happen right ahead of Rahul’s visit to the state on Tuesday for a poll rally.

About  Almagir Alam

• Alamgir Alam is a Congress leader, serves as the rural development minister in the Jharkhand government. He is a four-time MLA from the Pakur constituency.
• Born in 1954, he graduated from Bhagalpur University in 1974, according to data from the Association of Democratic Reforms.
• A resident of Sahibganj district, Alam was first elected to the Jharkhand Assembly in 2000. He again won in 2004.
• He also served as the Speaker of the Jharkhand Assembly in 2006. In 2009, he lost the polls, but registered successive wins in the Jharkhand Assembly elections in 2014 and 2019.