Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, March 3
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday seized Rs 3 crore cash from a coal businessman allegedly linked to the suspended Jharkhand IAS Pooja Singhal.
The central economic intelligence agency on Friday conducted raids at the premises of Ashok Kumar, officer with the Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation (JSMDC) and coal business Azhar Ansari. About 14 places located in Harmu, Ramgarh and Hazaribagh were covered in the raids.
Sources said Ezhar Ansari, who owned Kahkasha group of companies, used to reportedly collect and manage cut money on behalf of Ashok Kumar, who is closely associated with Pooja Singhal. The officials hinted that there was evidence that they were collecting the money for Singhal, who was arrested by ED in May last year in connection with the MNREGA scam.
She is on provisional bail granted by the Supreme Court.
In 2007, the Jharkhand government drafted a policy to supply coal to small and medium enterprises at cheap price through coal mines of the companies of the central government undertakings.
The JSMDC was made the nodal agency for the supply. It is alleged that Ashok Kumar and unknown officials of JSMDC used to charge commission from companies and enterprises besides selling dry fuel in the open market. The money was collected through Ansari.
The latest action of ED would land the IAS officer in trouble as she was Managing Director of JSMDC during the period.
