ED conducts raids 20 places of Jharkhand CM's close aid and mining dept Secretary Pooja Singhal

New Delhi/Ranchi: Enforcement directorate on Friday morning raided 20 places simultaneously in different parts of the country to investigate alleged money laundering by a 2000 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, Pooja Singhal.

Raids which started at 6 am under the leadership of a joint director spread to New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Faridabad, Gurugram, Muzaffarpur, Ranchi and other cities. Six places including a multi super speciality hospital run by her second husband, Abhisekh, was also searched. Her first husband is 1999 batch IAS officer in Jharkhand.

ED recovered Rs 25 crores in cash from the office of her chartered accountant at Ranchi.

Raids followed the statement of a junior engineer,Ram Vinod Prasad Sinha who is in custody of anti corruption bureau. Sinha is reported to have told the investigators that Ms Singhal had obliged two NGOs, Welfare Point and Prerna Niketan with Rs 6 crores fund and had granted mining lease on 83 acres of forest land in contravention of the environment regulations.

As deputy commissioners in Chatra, Palamu,Khunti districts,she is alleged to have committed irregularities in MNRGEA.

BJP member of Lok Sabha from Godda,Nishikant Dubey, tweeted by welcoming ED action on the IAS officer and said, "She is the blue eyed bureaucrat of chief minister Hemant Soren". She had obliged the brother and close relatives of CM with allotment of mines,Dubey alleged.

Meanwhile in Dhanbad, ED raided the premises of nine outsorching companies engaged in coal business and illegal coal mining.

Pooja Singhal is managing director of Jharkhand State mineral development corporation.