ED Raid at locations of chief engineer of Rural Development Department across 24 locations

Ranchi: The team of the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids at more than 20 locations of the Chief Engineer of the Rural Development Department spread across Bihar, Jharkhand Delhi and Haryana. As per the information received these raids were conducted across 24 locations in these four states.

A team of the ED reached his house located in the Bistupur Circuit House Area. Virendra Ram has been accused in the DA case. During the previous Vidhansabha elections, Rs 2.50 crore in cash was recovered from his house. At that time it emerged that his wife was planning to contest elections from Jugsalai.

Virendra Ram has been accused of amassing illegal properties in Ranchi Patna and Siwan including flats and duplexes in these cities. Well-placed sources said that so the ED has discovered as many as eight SUVs, six houses including four houses at Defense Colony in New Delhi which was over Rs 20 Crore, documents pertaining to investments, jewelry besides several incriminating documents have been recovered during the raid.

According to an official, Virendra Ram, Chief Engineer at Rural Development Department, Jharkhand, and Alok Ranjan, a ‘lawyer’, have been apprehended. Ranjan, who identifies himself as a lawyer, was earlier arrested in 2019 by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Jharkhand after a raid was conducted at the residence of one Suresh Prasad Verma, a junior engineer.

The ACB had recovered Rs 2.67 crore from the room of Ranjan who used to stay at Verma’s house. On February 21, ED teams conducted raids at 24 premises of Virendra Ram, located in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Delhi, Patna, Siwan (Bihar) and Haryana.

During the raids, investment-related documents worth crores of rupees were recovered along with jewellery worth Rs 1.5 crore. ED sources said that eight SUVs belonging to Ram, a total of six houses including four in Delhi’s Defence Colony have been traced. Their cost is more than Rs 20 crore. According to sources, Ram also owns a flat in Jamshedpur’s Sonari residential area and two duplexes in Mango area of the same city.