Latest news with #AlamgirAlam
Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
HC rejects bail plea of Alamgir Alam
1 2 Ranchi: Jharkhand High Court on Friday dismissed the bail plea of former state rural development minister Alamgir Alam. Alam has been made an accused by the ED for his involvement in a tender scam running into several crores of rupees. The court of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad has earlier heard the matter at length and had reserved the order. The order was pronounced by the judge on Friday in court. Alam, then rural development minister in the cabinet of chief minister Champai Soren in 2024, had to resign from his office due to his involvement in facilitating tenders of the department to contractors and receiving kickbacks for the same. Alam came in the line of fire after rural development department chief engineer Virendra Ram was arrested by the ED for his involvement in money laundering. Investigation revealed that Alam had provided tenders to selected companies and received commissions for facilitating tenders. Virender Ram's operations in embezzlement of funds were caught by the ED sleuths who traced his link to Alam. The minister was also summoned by the ED officials to face interrogations. Alam represented Pakur for four times before he was taken into custody on May 15 last year. Investigation and raids were conducted in the residence and offices of Alam and his aides by the ED. Such raids also revealed accumulation of cash amounting to Rs 32 crore from the house of one Jahangir Alam, a domestic help of the minister's secretary Sanjeev Lal. The presence of huge amount of cash from the house of a domestic help and interrogation turned the heat on Alamgir Alam. The high court after having heard the arguments of the parties rejected the bail application filed by the former minister.
New Indian Express
5 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Tender scam: Jharkhand HC denies bail to former minister Alamgir Alam
RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday rejected the bail application filed by former minister Alamgir Alam, in a money laundering case linked to a tender-commission scam in the state's Rural Development Department. Alamgir Alam had approached Jharkhand HC after his bail plea was rejected by a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ranchi. Arguments from both the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the defence were completed on June 26, after which the Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad-led court reserved its verdict. The seventy-year-old senior Congress leader representing Pakur was summoned by the ED after a cash haul of Rs 32 crore from the residence of his personal assistant Sanjeev Lal's domestic help. Lal and his domestic help Jehangir Alam are also in jail after the ED arrested them following the recovery of Rs 35.23 crore from their premises on May 6, 2024. Later, on May 8, the ED sleuths entered the Rural Development Ministry office in Ranchi and searched the files and recovered Rs 1.75 lakh new currency notes and Rs 28,000 old Rs 500 notes from the official chamber of Minister Alamgir Alam's Private Secretary Sanjeev Lal. Alamgir was arrested by the ED on May 15 after an intense interrogation session spanning over six hours under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It also came to light, during the investigation, that the collection of commission went to influential people under the supervision of Sanjeev Lal. Money was collected in connivance with the syndicate of engineers even for managing tenders and collecting commission. A fixed percentage was given to high-ranking people in the government, after collecting it from the contractors.
Hans India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Jharkhand HC rejects bail plea of ex-Minister Alamgir Alam in tender scam case
Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday rejected the bail plea of former state minister and senior Congress leader Alamgir Alam in connection with the high-profile money laundering case linked to a tender-commission scam in the state's Rural Development Department. Alam, who has been in judicial custody for the past 14 months, faced a setback after the bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad denied him bail. The court had reserved its order on June 20 after hearing arguments from both sides. During the proceedings, advocate Zoheb Hussain represented the Enforcement Directorate (ED) via video conferencing, while senior advocate S. Nagamuthu appeared for Alamgir Alam. The former minister had approached the High Court after his bail plea was earlier rejected by the Ranchi-based Special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) Court. However, he failed to get relief here as well. The ED had arrested Alam on May 15 last year in connection with a probe into a commission racket allegedly operating within the Rural Development Department. Before that, on May 6, the ED had carried out extensive raids at the premises of Alam's Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Sanjeev Lal, his domestic help Jahangir Alam, and several contractors. The raids led to the cash recovery of Rs 30 crore from Jahangir Alam's residence, Rs 2.93 crore from contractor Munna Singh, and Rs 2.14 crore from contractor Rajiv Singh. Investigations revealed that a large-scale commission racket was going on in the awarding of tenders, with a significant portion allegedly funneled back to Alamgir Alam. Alam was a prominent figure in the Jharkhand cabinet, serving as the number two minister under both Hemant Soren and Champai Soren. He also held the post of Congress Legislature Party leader in the state assembly. He resigned from both positions shortly after his arrest.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
HC reserves order in bail plea of ex-min Alam
Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday reserved its order in a petition filed by former state rural development minister Alamgir Alam seeking bail pursuant to his arrest in the tender scam by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Alam, a four-time former Congress MLA from Pakur, has been in custody since May 15 last year after the ED had started investigatigating his involvement in facilitating tenders. The case was heard by Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad who after having heard the arguments of Alam and the ED, reserved the order. Alam, a cabinet minister during the previous JMM-Congress-RJD alliance govt, had to resign from his office as he came in the line of fire following the arrest department's chief engineer Virendra Ram by the ED for his involvement in money laundering. Investigation revealed that Alam had provided tenders to selected companies and has received commissions for facilitating tenders. The investigation culminated in raids being conducted by the ED in the properties of Ram in Delhi, Jamshedpur, Patna and Ranchi. Similarly, raids were also conducted in the premises of other engineers of the department including the residence of Sanjeev Lal, the personal secretary of Alamgir Alam. In course of the raids conducted by the ED, the house of Jahangir Alam, a house help of Sanjeev, was also scanned. The raid in Jahangir Alam's house revealed possession of Rs 32 crores in cash. The investigating authorities then turned the heat on Alamgir Alam and connected the pieces concluding his involvement in accumulating huge amount of cash and stashing it in the house of his employees.
The Hindu
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Enforcement Directorate files third supplementary prosecution complaint in case linked to former Jharkhand Minister Alamgir Alam
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Ranchi Zonal Office, has filed its third Supplementary Prosecution Complaint on Thursday (June 19, 2025) against Suresh Prasad Verma, a former Junior Engineer, in a major money-laundering case. The complaint is part of an ongoing investigation into a massive bribery and tender-related corruption racket in Jharkhand, which has led to the arrest of then State Minister Alamgir Alam. The federal agency on Friday (June 20,2025) in its official press statement said it has initiated its money-laundering investigation based on a 2019 FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Jamshedpur, in which Suresh Prasad Verma was trapped while accepting a bribe. Subsequent searches by the ACB had led to a seizure of ₹2.67 Crore in unexplained cash from a property linked to a chief engineer Veerendra Kumar Ram. ED's probe revealed a deep-rooted conspiracy where senior government officials and political figures allegedly received around 3% commission on government tenders. 'The investigation established that a significant portion of this commission was collected on behalf of then-Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam, allegedly managed through his Personal Secretary, Sanjeev Kumar Lal, 'ED stated in the press statement. It also asserted that this network was unearthed following an extensive investigation, which included the seizure of over ₹35 Crore in cash from premises linked to the Minister's aides. The probe has also established a sophisticated money-laundering nexus involving Delhi-based Chartered Accountants and entry operators who were funneling the illicit cash through shell companies. ED had previously arrested Mr. Alam and has filed charge sheets against him, senior officials, and the money-laundering syndicate. The latest complaint formally charges Suresh Prasad Verma for his role in the acquisition of Proceeds of Crime and for knowingly assisting in the concealment of illicit cash linked to the larger racket. According to ED, till date, four Prosecution Complaints against 14 accused persons, three provisional attachment orders (PAOs) have been issued whereby assets to the tune of ₹44 crore have been attached, cash of around ₹38 crore (approx.) have been seized, jewellery worth ₹1.65 Crore, eight luxury vehicles have been seized, and nine persons have been arrested in the case.
