ED on Tuesday arrested Hazaribagh’s big coal businessman Izhar Ansari, close to suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal, arrested in the MNREGA scam.
Apart from the Kahkshan Group of Companies, he is the operator of several shell companies through which black money was being operated. ED on Tuesday arrested Izhar Ansari after day-long raids at three locations in Hazaribagh and Ramgarh.
13 lakh cash and documents recovered
Apart from Rs 13 lakh in cash, documents related to various shell companies and investments of black money have been found from his hideouts, which the ED is verifying. The places where ED has conducted raids include the house located in Millat Colony of Lohsinghna police station area of Hazaribagh, Izhar’s factory in Kuju OP area of Ramgarh and another place.
Izhar Ansari was ignoring the summons sent earlier by ED and was not appearing for questioning. Now ED will take him on remand and interrogate him. Izhar is accused of making black money worth crores of rupees by illegally allotting coal with the help of Pooja Singhal, the then Secretary of the Mines and Geology Department.
Last year, on March 3, 2023, ED had raided Izhar Ansari’s premises for the first time. At that time, ED had found Rs 3 crore 58 lakh in cash and huge quantity of documents related to illegal coal business from Izhar Ansari’s residence in Millat Colony.
Black money earned with the help of Pooja Singhal
ED’s investigation has revealed that coal businessman Izhar Ansari made a lot of black money in the coal business with the help of the then Secretary of Mines and Geology Department, Pooja Singhal. He transferred part of the illegal earnings to Pooja Singhal with the help of her chartered accountant Suman Kumar.
In the year 2022, ED had recovered Rs 19.76 crore from the chartered accountant of Pooja Singhal in the MNREGA scam. After this, the ED conducted a long interrogation of the chartered accountant, in which it was revealed that the money from illegal coal mining also reached Pooja Singhal. In this, Ijhar Ansari used to send most of the black money in the coal business to Pooja Singhal.
They used to collect coal in the name of fake companies and sell it in the open market. This ED raid was related to coal linkage. Izhar Ansari is accused of picking up coal at discounted rates in the name of fake companies and selling it in the open market. ED had also found documents related to various fake companies from his locations, about which ED had also interrogated him last year.
