The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued summons to Preeti Kumar, wife of senior IAS officer Avinash Kumar, in the Berlin Hospital case located at Bariatu Road.
Sources said on Thursday that ED has issued summons to Preeti Kumar asking her to appear at the ED regional office for questioning on January 3.
It is noteworthy that on December 5, ED had conducted a survey in Berlin Hospital. ED officials had also measured the land of Berlin Hospital. The hospital land is in the name of Preeti Kumar.
During the survey on December 5, ED officials were examining the documents of Berlin Hospital. The land was also measured from Amin. The entire matter is related to 12 katta land of khata number-54, plot number-2711 of Badagain area of Ranchi. The ED had received information that the land had been purchased wrongly. The purchase price of the land was much below the market price. It was told that Dr. Nalini Ranjan Sinha and Usha Sinha were mentioned as purchasers of this land purchased by Preeti Kumar, wife of IAS officer Avinash Kumar. Later Preeti Kumar and TM Thakur bought the land.
Later TM Thakur surrendered the land through a registered deed. It was told that the land has been purchased for Rs 1 crore whereas its actual value is several crores of rupees. Berlin Hospital was built on the land.
This is first case in State where a bureaucrat’s wife has been summoned by ED. Prior to this the central probe agency has arrested senior IAS officer Pooja Singhal in MNREGA scam.
The case relates to alleged corruption in the implementation of MGNREGA, the Centre's flagship scheme for rural employment.
Singhal has been in custody since May 11, 2022 after raids were conducted at properties linked to her in connection with the money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.
The ED has accused Singhal, a former state mines department secretary, of money laundering and said its team seized more than Rs 36 crore cash linked to alleged illegal mining as part of two separate money laundering investigations.
Apart from the 2000-batch IAS officer, her businessman husband, a chartered accountant associated with the couple, and others were also raided by the ED as part of the probe.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 4 this year arrested Jharkhand cadre 2011-batch IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan for his role in alleged land deals.
Ranjan, who was currently serving as the Director of Social Welfare, was the second second Jharkhand-cadre IAS officer arrested by ED within a year.
According to sources, the IAS officer, while serving as the deputy commissioner of Ranchi, allegedly used the Kolkata registry office for forgery in the Army land case in Bariatu and land parcel at Cheshire Road.
