According to news agency ANI, a local court on Friday extended the Enforcement Directorate’s custody of suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal for another five days.
“Suman Kumar & Pooja Singhal were produced before court today. ED urged that Suman Kumar be sent to judicial custody, court accepted it & sent him to jail. ED sought the remand of Pooja Singhal for 6 more days, court sent her to a 5-day ED remand,” ED lawyer BMP Singh said.
On May 16, the court ordered the IAS officer. As well as her chartered accountant, Suman Kumar, to be held in ED custody for four days.
Singhal was detained on May 12 in connection with a money laundering case involving the suspected misappropriation of MGNREGA funding in Jharkhand’s Khunti district. She was apprehended when the ED conducted operations in four different states. The agency allegedly recovered Rs. 17 crore from her chartered accountant Suman Kumar’s home.
The ED is looking into a money laundering case in which a former Jharkhand government junior engineer was arrested two years ago. Moreover, the state government filed FIRs against Ram Binod Prasad Sinha under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Funds designated for the completion of government projects under the MGNREGA are allegedly missing. Between 2009 and 2010, Singhal was the deputy commissioner of Khunti. According to the news agency PTI. The arrested engineer claimed to have given the Khunti district government a 5% commission out of the embezzled funds.
