In a major haul, the Enforcement Directorate has recovered around ₹23 crore from a house help of Sanjiv Lal, who is a private secretary of Jharkhand Minister Alamgir Alam.

The cash seizure is expected to provide fodder to political parties to target INDIA bloc alliance in the on going elections since Rural Development Minister Alam is from the Congress which is part of the JMM-led coalition government of Jharkhand. It may be recalled that former state CM Hemant Soren is also behind the bars in a corruption case.

Videos and photos of the rich unaccounted cash haul showed sleuths wading through piles of scattered cash in a room. The officials were still counting large wads of notes mostly in the denomination of ₹500 and said the final figure may vary from around ₹23 crore counted so far. According to the ED, the officials swooped down on the premises that housed cash after getting a tip off in a money laundering case against the former chief engineer of the state rural development department, Veerendra Kumar Ram, arrested by the agency last.

Ram is alleged to have accepted bribe in awarding tenders to private parties in the rural department. Last year, the ED had put out a statement stating that it had seized ₹39 crore, treating it as a proceeds of crime generated allegedly by Ram.

Ram and his family allegedly utilised the commission to lead a lavish lifestyle, the ED had remarked last year. The ED had taken this case from Jharkhand anti-corruption bureau (ACB) to probe the money laundering aspect of the corruption case.

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