ED to confiscate J’khand IAS officer Singhal’s assets as adjudicating authority grants approval

PTI, May 11, 2023, 8:48 PM IST

An order for attaching assets worth more than Rs 82 crore of Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Pooja Singhal and others has been confirmed by the adjudicating authority of the anti-money laundering law, the Enforcement Directorate said on Thursday.

The agency can confiscate attached assets once the adjudicating authority of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) confirms a provisional order, according to the law. The properties that have been confirmed are worth Rs 82.77 crore and were provisionally attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on December 1 last year under the provisions of the PMLA.

”The properties include one super-speciality hospital named ‘Pulse Super Speciality Hospital’, a diagnostics centre named ‘Pulse Diagnostic and Imaging Centre’, their plant and machinery and two land parcels situated in Ranchi,” the federal probe agency said in a statement.

Singhal, a 2000-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, was arrested by the ED on May 11 last year on money laundering charges linked to alleged irregularities in the MGNREGA scheme. She was holding the charge of Jharkhand mining secretary and was suspended by the state government following her arrest.

”The proceeds of crime were inter-mingled and layered with the other unaccounted money generated by Pooja Singhal, by misusing her official position,” the ED said. ”By this modus-operandi, Pooja Singhal amassed huge wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income and source of funds invested in these immovable properties were primarily from the unaccounted cash profits generated from these proceeds of crime,” it said.

The agency said Singhal is currently in judicial custody at the Hotwar jail in Ranchi and she has been ”denied any relief from the Supreme Court in the matter of bail petition filed by her.”