Jharkhand cash haul: Babulal Marandi writes to CM Champai Soren, demands CBI probe

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jharkhand chief Babu Lal Marandi wrote a letter to Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren, over Enforcement Directorate recovering huge amounts of cash from the residence of a household help linked to Sanjiv Lal, the personal secretary to Congress leader Alamgir Alam, and demanded the case to be given to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
He said that if action is not taken by his side, he too “won’t be able to escape from being accused” of the conspiracy.
“I would like to draw your attention to a serious incident, the raids carried out by the Enforcement Directorate at the residence of an employee of the private secretary to the Rural development minister, during which bundles of notes were seized…it is being discussed across the country that Jharkhand government is immersed in corruption. I am sure you also would have been surprised to see this,” Marandi said in his letter addressed to the CM.
The BJP leader highlighted that ED wrote a letter to the Jharkhand Chief Secretary asking to take action in the matter, but the officials didn’t show any interest in this “sensitive matter.”
He further alleged that the accused acquired immense wealth through corruption because the letter demanding action in the matter were “suppressed.”
“I would like to inform you that the Enforcement Directorate, Ranchi had written a letter to the Chief Secretary, Jharkhand on May 8, 2023, and on the next day on May 9, the Secretary of Rural Affairs Department was ordered to take action. It is surprising that the Secretary did not show any interest in taking action in this sensitive matter. It is also a serious matter that a confidential letter written by ED is found in a bundle of notes in the ED raid from the house of Jahangir Alam, an employee of the private secretary of the Honorable Minister,” the letter stated.
“By suppressing the letter on the basis of which the Secretary was supposed to take action against the corrupt, the business of acquiring immense wealth through corruption continued. On one hand, corruption was being committed and on the other hand, confidential letters were being found in a bundle of notes in a servant’s residence is a very serious matter,” it added.
Marandi asked how such a confidential letter reached the residence of Minister’s private secretary and which officials were involved in this.
“The people of Jharkhand have the right to know this,” Marandi said. “I hope you will take this matter seriously.”
He also demanded CM Soren to register an FIR on the matter and hand over the case to CBI.
“Otherwise it will be considered that you remained silent in this serious matter of corruption and kept watching all this wrongdoings,” the BJP leader stated.
“Remember, if you and the Chief Secretary do not take action on the request for the above action even after all of this being brought to your notice, then sooner or later you too will not be able to escape from being accused of criminal conspiracy in this serious matter,” he added.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Rural Development Minister and Congress leader Alamgir Alam urged patience and restraint in jumping to conclusions after an Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid that uncovered over Rs 20 crore from the residence of a household help linked to Sanjiv Lal, the personal secretary to minister Alamgir Alam.
The raids are part of an ongoing investigation related to the case involving Virendra K Ram, the chief engineer at the Jharkhand Rural Development Department, who was arrested in February 2023 in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of government schemes