SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, May 16: John Burnett, an American judge, once told a prisoner: “Thou art to be hanged not for having stolen a horse, but in order that other horses may not be stolen”.
The judge expressed this in the context of the ‘Deterrent Theory of Punishment’, which has failed in Jharkhand where the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested at least 50 persons on money laundering charges, right from a chief minister to a ‘nobody’ during the last two years alone.
Deterrent theory’s aim is to create fear
The main aim of the deterrent theory is to create fear among the people to stop them from committing any kind of crime or wrongful act.
Recovery of a mountain of cash
However, the recovery of a mountain of cash of over Rs 35 crore hoarded in an apartment owned by Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam’s Private Secretary Sanjiv Lal and his assistant Jehangir Alam after these 50 persons were sent to jail in the heart of the city is enough to say that the corrupt people are unfettered.
“The corrupt people are not deterred. Otherwise, they would have thought twice about hoarding a mountain of cash in an apartment,” said a senior lawyer requesting anonymity.
Criminal justice system
“They believe that they will get freedom by managing the criminal justice system with the wealth they earned illegally,” he maintained. Several such people have been successful too in the past.
Dumping of FIR letter with notes angers ED
Not only that. The ED was aghast to find that the letter it sent to the state government for lodging an FIR in the tender scam committed by chief engineer Veerendra Kumar Ram and his associates was dumped along with the notes considering it just yet another piece of paper. “They must have treated our letters in other cases in a similar way,” said an ED officer.
Cash haul just a tip of iceberg
People in the power corridor say that the recovery of this amount from the premises linked to Alam is just the tip of the iceberg. The ED can find several such mountains of cash if it investigates the wealth acquired by other ministers, their private secretaries and associates, bureaucrats and contractors, they added.
ED action gained momentum since 2022 under Kapil Raj
The persons, whom the ED arrested since May 2022 after recovery of Rs 19 crore from IAS officer Pooja Singhal’s Chartered Accountant, include politicians, officers, engineers, businessmen, revenue staff, power brokers and land brokers.
The largest number of accused arrested on charges of money laundering are those involved in land scams.
Modus operandi of land scam gang
This gang engaged in land business prepares fake land documents and buys and sells them.
The cases being probed under the guidance of ED Additional Director Kapil Raj include the MNREGA scam, mining scam, rural development tender scam, land scam, cash scandal, liquor scam, bank scam, mid-day meal scam and coal scam.
During the investigation conducted by ED, two people were arrested in the MNREGA scam, eight in the mining scam, 23 in the land scam and two in the cash scam.
Apart from this, one accused was arrested in the case of liquor, coal, bank, mid-day meal and terror funding. At least, two persons, booked by the ED, are out on bail.
Liquor scam probe on the card
The ED is also likely to begin a probe into the liquor scam. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during an election rally, had dropped enough hints when he pegged the scam at Rs 40 crore.
BJP leaders too hoard illegal wealth
However, it is not that the ruling party leaders and their associates alone are undeterred to acquire illegal wealth through tender scams, transfer posting, allotment of mines and several other wrongful works.
Several leaders in the BJP have earned illegal wealth with impunity. Some of them are fighting elections too. But they are untouched creating heartburns among the ruling alliance leaders. To cite an example, the Jharkhand High Court ordered a CBI/ED probe against Dhanbad BJP candidate Dhulu Mahto some six years back. But the central agencies are yet to take any action.
Who all have been booked/arrested by ED?
- Gyan Prakash Saraogi(Bank Scam)
- Suman Kumar, CA, (MNREGA Scam)
- Pooja Singhal, IAS (MNREGA Scam)
- Pankaj Mishra, Political aide to ex-C Hemant Soren (Mining Scam)
5.- Bachchu Yadav (Mining Scam)
- Prem Prakash (Mining Scam)
- Amit Aggarwal, Businessman, (Cash Scandal)
- Raju Kumar Verma (Midday Meal Scam)
- Veerendra Kumar Ram (Rural Development Tender Scam)
- Alok Ranjan (Tender scam)
- Faiyaz Khan (Land Scam)
- Imtiaz Ahmed (Land Scam)
- Saddam Hussein (Land Scam)
- Bhanu Pratap (Land Scam)
- Talha Khan (Land Scam)
- Afsar Ali (Land Scam)
- Pradeep Bagchi (Land Scam)
- Pashupati Yadav (Mining Scam)
- Chhavi Ranjan, IAS, (Land Scam)
- Amit Aggarwal(Land Scam)
- Dilip Ghosh (Land Scam)
- Neeraj Mittal (Rural Development Tender Scam)
- Ram Prakash Bhatia (Rural Development Scam)
- Tara Janch (Rural Development Scam)
- Bharat Prasad (Land Scam)
- Rajesh Rai (Land Scam)
- Krishna Kumar Saha(Mining Scam)
- Bhagwan Bhagat (Mining Scam)
- Twinkle Bhagat (Mining Scam)
- Harish Yadav (Rural Development Scam)
- Bishnu Aggarwal (Land Scam)
- Prem Prakash (Land Scam)
- Sunil Yadav (Mining Scam)
- Yogendra Tiwari (Liquor Scam)
- Rahul Yadav (Mining Scam)
- Nivesh Kumar (Terror funding)
- Izhar Ansari (Coal Scam)
- Hemant Soren (Land Scam)
- Bhanu Pratap (Land Scam)
- Bipin Singh (Land Scam)
- Priyaranjan Sahay (Land Scam)
- Irshad Akhtar (Land Scam)
- Antu Tirkey (Land Scam)
- Sanjeev Lal (Rural Development Scam)
- Jahangir Alam (Rural Development)
- Tapas Ghosh (Land Scam)
- Sanjeet Kumar (Land Scam)
- Mohammed Irshad (Land Scam)
- Afsar Ali (Land Scam)
- Alamgir Alam, Minister (Tender scam)
