The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday arrested Veerendra Kumar Ram, chief engineer of the Jharkhand rural development department, on money laundering charges, after a two-day rigorous search operation conducted at multiple locations related to him across three states.
The ED produced Ram before the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court of P K Sharma in Ranchi and got five-day remand of him. The agency had sought 10-day custody citing ‘non-cooperation’ on part of the accused during questioning.
“The ED prayed for 10-day remand arguing they need to question him in connection with the material collected during the search operation. We opposed their demand on several grounds including his health condition. He has several ailments including one related to blood. The court has directed for his daily medical check-up and permission to the counsel to meet him for half an hour every day,” said Vikrant Sinha, counsel of Ram.
Ram has been arrested in connection with a money laundering case the agency had registered on September 17, 2020. The agency had recorded Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) using a first information report (FIR) registered by the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on November 11, 2019, under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act as the predicate offence.
The ACB registered the case after it caught Suresh Prasad Verma, a junior engineer in the road construction department, taking bribe of ₹10,000 form a contractor in Jamshedpur. In a related action, the ACB subsequently seized ₹2.67 crore from a flat owned by Verma, which was occupied by his tenant Alok Ranjan, who happened to be a cousin of Veerendra Ram.
As part of the money laundering probe, the agency has alleged in its remand note, seen by HT, that Ram with help from his chartered accountant laundered unaccounted cash, which were routed into the bank accounts of Ram and his family members through fictitious entries, besides using laundered money in buying property at prime locations in New Delhi, Jamshedpur and Ranchi and purchasing luxury vehicles.
“Huge amounts have been received in the back accounts of relatives of Veerendra Kumar Ram, first in the joint account of Ram and Rajkumari Devi (his wife) to the tune of ₹9.30 crore approximately between financial years 2014-15 to 2018-19 and also in the account of Genda Ram (his father) to the tune of ₹4.5 crores in a span of 31-32 days from 21/12/22 to 23/1/23,” the ED said in its remand note.
Besides documents related to purchase of immovable properties, the agency said that during the search operation it has recovered cash to the tune of ₹40 lakh and jewelry worth ₹1.51 crore from premises related to Ram.
The agency alleged that during search proceedings, Ram and his family members could not explain the source of income which they have declared in their income tax return. The list of properties of Ram revealed by the ED includes three residences in upscale Defence Colony, Saket and Chhatarpur in New Delhi, two duplexes in Jamsedhpur and a land parcel in Ranchi.
Ram and his family members have also been found in possession of at least seven luxury cars including two cars of Audi, two Toyota Fortuner, one Toyota India and a Skoda. Some of these cars were registered in the name of contractors
The agency in its remand note has alleged that Ram played ‘pivotal role’ in managing tenders and allocation of work to private entities and ‘distribution of commission’ and he accepted that he charged 0.3 percent of the tender amount as commission.
“Commision is distributed in mechanised manner up to higher ups of government including highly placed bureaucrats and politicians. Further, during the investigation name of senior bureaucrats and politicians have emerged which is being investigated by the ED,” the agency’s remand note said.
