Suspended Jharkhand IAS officer Pooja Singhal's husband seeks anticipatory bail from SC

New Delhi [India], June 12 : The Supreme Court on Monday asked Abhishek Jha, the husband of suspended Jharkhand cadre IAS officer Pooja Singhal, to serve the copy of his petition seeking anticipatory bail to the Enforcement Directorate.

ED has been investigating the MNREGA scam and money laundering case in which the couple was accused.

A vacation bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Rajesh Bindal refused as of now to give any protection to Jha and posted the hearing of the anticipatory bail plea on Thursday.

The question of issuing notice on the petition will be considered on the next date of hearing, the bench said.

2000-batch IAS officer Pooja Singhal was accused along with her husband and others in connection with a money laundering case registered by a federal agency pertaining to the alleged embezzlement of MGNREGA funds in the Khunti district during 2009-2010 and some other suspicious financial transactions.

The ED has accused a suspended IAS officer 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 Singhal, her businessman husband, a chartered accountant associated with the couple, and others were also raided by the ED as part of the money laundering probe.

Singhal, who was holding the charge of Jharkhand mining secretary, was suspended by the state government following her arrest by the ED.

Suman Kumar, a chartered accountant linked to Singhal and her husband, was also arrested by the ED and cash totalling Rs 19.76 crore was seized from him.