ED gets five days of remand of Virendra Ram, agency claims the chief engineer got 0.3 percent as commission for every tender awarded

Ranchi: The special PMLA court of Prabhat Kumar Sharma on Thursday granted five days of remand of the chief engineer of the rural works department Virendra Ram to the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The agency claimed that Virendra Ram has confessed that he used to receive 0.3 percent of the tender amount from the companies which were awarded the tenders, as commission.

In the remand note, the ED has stated that it is revealed from his statement as well as other witnesses that he played a pivotal role in managing the tenders and allocation of works to private entities and the percentage of commission is distributed in a mechanized manner up to higher-ups of government.

Further, he was using vehicles which were the property of the companies/ contractors, some of them for more than two years, which established the quid pro quo. It is further submitted that certain highly placed officials/ politicians are involved in this nexus and the huge payments were usually received in cash which were later laundered which needs to be unearthed,” the ED has said.

In the remand petition, the ED has stated that the agency’s search operations were conducted at several premises related to Virendra Ram, CA Mukesh Mittal and their associates on February 2. As per the details of the immovable properties provided by the ED it has been pointed that Virendra Ram has purchased two duplexes in Jamshedpur in 2003 and 2019.

He purchased a plot at Pithoria in Ranchi in 2006-07. A plot was purchased in the name of his father at Chhatarpur in 2023. In 2015 and 2019 he purchased two joint housing properties along with his wife at Saket (D Block) and Defense Colony in New Delhi.

During the course of investigation and searches following movable vehicles were found which were purchased in the name of his family members and others including his son Ayush Rapson, wife, besides one Panamati Devi, Ankit Sahu and Rajesh Kumar Construction Pvt Ltd. The ED has stated that during the course of searches, cash amount to the tune of Rs 40 lakhs and jewellery to the tune of Rs 1.51 Crore were recovered from the residential premises of Virendra Ram.

The ED stated that he has committed an offence under section 3 of PMLA, 2002 and he was actually and knowingly involved in the laundering, acquiring, concealment, layering and projecting proceeds of crime in the form of immovable and movable properties in his own name and in the name of his family members as untainted.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday intervening night arrested billionaire chief engineer of the Jharkhand government Virendra Ram after 48 hours of questioning.