Six counting machines and 12 hours: ₹36.75 crore cash seized in Jharkhand's Ranchi – 10 key points

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₹36 crore in Ranchi, Jharkhand, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday arrested Sanjiv Lal, personal secretary to state rural development minister Alamgir Alam, and Lal's maid Jahangir Alam. They were presented before the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, which remanded them to six days of ED custody. Also Read: ED arrests Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam's secretary On Monday, the ED raided the premises of both Sanjiv Lal and his domestic help Alamgir Alam in premises in Jharkhand's Ranchi.

Following that a total seizure of cash was recorded at ₹35.23 crore. Continuing its action, the ED carried out fresh searches at five locations in Ranchi on Tuesday, and seized around ₹1.5 crore from a contractor identified as Rajiv Kumar Singh. Of the seized cash, ₹32.20 crore were recovered from a flat in the Jharkhand capital where Jahangir Alam was residing and about ₹3 crore from another location that included ₹10.05 lakh from Lal's place.

Also Read: SC tells Arvind Kejriwal: 'If granted interim bail, we don't want you to perform official duties' —10 key points According to News18, it took probe agency almost 12 hours and six counting machines to complete the counting process. The report also said that an official communication between the ED and the state government was also recovered with the stash of the cash. On Tuesday morning, the duo was produced in a special PMLA court and has been sent to ED remand for six days.

The ED told the court that Jharkhand Minister's secretary collected commission on tenders on behalf of "some influential people". ED also claimed that officials of rural development department, from "top to bottom", were involved in an alleged illegal cash payment nexus. Alamgir Alam,