The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a fifth supplementary prosecution complaint on Tuesday before a special court in Ranchi in the Jharkhand money laundering case. It added 14 new accused from the rural development department, bringing the total to 36. The case involves former minister Alamgir Alam.
The Directorate of Enforcement's Ranchi Zonal Office filed a fifth supplementary prosecution complaint on March 17, 2026, before the Special Court for PMLA cases in Ranchi, under sections 44 and 45 of the PMLA, 2002. It named 14 engineers and officials from the Rural Works Department (RWD), Rural Development Special Zone (RDSZ), and Jharkhand State Rural Road Development Authority (JSRRDA) as new accused (Nos. 23-36), raising the total across all complaints to 36. The new accused include retired Chief Engineers Singrai Tuti, Rajeev Lochan, Surendra Kumar, and Pramod Kumar; Executive Engineers Santosh Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Ajay Tirkey, Raj Kumar Toppo, Ashok Kumar Gupta, Siddhant Kumar, and Anil Kumar (Retd.); Assistant Engineers Ram Pukar Ram and Ramesh Ojha (both Retd.); and former Superintending Engineer/Engineer-in-Chief Umesh Kumar (Retd.). ED investigations linked them to collecting, aggregating, and delivering illegal commissions deemed proceeds of crime under PMLA Section 2(1)(u). The case stems from FIR No. 13/2019 by Jamshedpur Anti-Corruption Bureau under Section 7(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018. Probes revealed a racket in these departments where contractors paid a fixed 3% commission on tender values for allotments. Distribution was hierarchical: 1.35% to former Minister Alamgir Alam via his personal secretary Sanjeev Kumar Lal; 0.65-1% to the departmental secretary; balance to chief and subordinate engineers. Against tenders worth about ₹3,048 crore, proceeds exceeded ₹90 crore. ED has conducted 52 searches across Jharkhand, Delhi, and Bihar; arrested nine persons, with Alamgir Alam, Sanjeev Kumar Lal, and Jahangir Alam in judicial custody. It issued three provisional attachment orders for ₹44 crore in properties (confirmed); seized ₹38 crore cash (including ₹32.20 crore from premises linked to Sanjeev Kumar Lal and ₹2.93 crore from Munna Singh) and eight luxury vehicles. Prior to this, ED filed one main and four supplementary complaints, for which cognisance was taken.
