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Ranchi, Oct 24 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has named eight more accused, allegedly linked to former state minister Alamgir Alam, in its fourth supplementary prosecution complaint (PC) filed before the special PMLA court, Ranchi, in the Jharkhand tender scam case, an official said on Friday.
The Ranchi zonal unit of the ED filed a fresh supplementary complaint on Wednesday as part of its ongoing money laundering probe into a large-scale corruption syndicate operating within the Rural Affairs Department of the Jharkhand government.
“This supplementary complaint charges eight new accused – including contractors, associates and family members of officers – for their active role in the generation, operation and laundering of proceeds of crime,” the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.
The agency said that with the inclusion of these names, the total number of accused in the case now stands at 22.
ED had arrested Alamgir Alam on May 15 last year in connection with the alleged commission racket related to the tender process of the department.
Earlier, on May 6, the agency had conducted extensive raids at the premises of Alam’s officer on special duty (OSD) Sanjeev Lal, his domestic help Jahangir Alam and several contractors.
Over Rs 35 crore in cash was seized in the search, including Rs 30 crore from the residence of Jahangir Alam, Rs 2.93 crore from contractor Munna Singh and Rs 2.14 crore from contractor Rajeev Singh.
The investigation indicated a widespread commission racket in tender allocation, with a major portion of the bribe allegedly paid to Alamgir Alam.
A senior Congress leader, Alam served as a cabinet minister in the Hemant Soren and Champai Soren governments as well as leader of the Congress Legislative Party in the Jharkhand Assembly. After his arrest he resigned from both posts.
–IANS
RCH/PGH