Who Is Alamgir Alam, Jharkhand Minister Linked To Huge Recoveries In Raids

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday conducted raids at multiple locations in Ranchi and recovered Rs 25 crore unaccounted cash from the house of a domestic help allegedly linked to secretary of Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam. The ED launched raids under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED made the recovery from a room allegedly belonging to the domestic help of Sanjiv Lal, the personal secretary to Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam.

5 facts about Alamgir Alam:

1. Born in 1954, Alamgir Alam graduated from Bhagalpur University in 1974. A senior Congress leader in Jharkhand, Mr Alam is a four-time MLA from the Pakur constituency. 
2. A resident of Sahibganj district, Mr Alam was first elected to the Jharkhand Assembly in 2000 and then again in 2004. He also served as the Speaker of the Jharkhand Assembly in 2006. While Mr Alam lost the polls in 2009, he registered successive wins in the Jharkhand Assembly elections in 2014 and 2019. 
3. The 70-year-old is currently serving as Jharkhand's Minister of Rural Development in Chief Minister Champai Soren's government.
4. Mr Alam is currently in the eye of a storm after the ED carried out searches linked to a money laundering case filed against Veerendra Kumar Ram, the former chief engineer of the rural development department, who was arrested last February. The ED, in its 2023 statement, said that Mr Ram "generated proceeds of crime in the name of commission" from contractors in lieu of allotment of tenders to them.
5. The Jharkhand minister, though, claimed that he had "no official information" about the raids, adding, "I have been watching TV and it says the premise is linked to the official PS (private secretary) provided to me by the government."