IAS Pooja Singhal took bribes, recovered cash belongs to her, reveals her chartered accountant

IAS officer Pooja Singhal's CA on Thursday revealed that out of Rs 17.49 crores recovered from his house by ED, the majority of it belonged to the IAS officer, who is also alleged to have taken bribes.

In a confession before the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Chartered Accountant of the recently arrested IAS officer Pooja Singhal, Suman Kumar, on Thursday said that out of the Rs 17.49 crore recovered by the probe agency in connection with the MGNREGA money fraud case, the majority of it belonged to Singhal.

The ED had arrested Kumar on May 6 after they had recovered a huge amount of cash from his house. He was being questioned before officials in Ranchi on Thursday.

“The statement of Suman Kumar taken under section 50 of PMLA during ED custody, it is stated that most of the cash amount recovered from his house belongs to Pooja Singhal, which was collected by him on her instruction. Further, he disclosed that on instructions of Pooja Singhal, he gave Rs three crores in cash to a renowned builder for purchasing the land for Pulse Hospital owned by Pooja Singhal and her family,” reads the ED documents accessed by India Today.

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The ED also alleged that the independent valuation of land and building of hospital (including one diagnostic centre owned by Pooja Singhal) is more than Rs 40 crores and the value of machinery is over Rs 30 crores.

“However, in the financial records of the hospital they have declared much less valuation than above. Investigation revealed that the tainted funds were being laundered through the hospital,” said the ED.

ED also suspects that Pooja Singhal was receiving crores of rupees in bribes which were being diverted to the hospital.