Jharkhand cabinet nod to launch probe against 5 BJP ex-ministers
The Jharkhand cabinet on Tuesday greenlit a proposal by the state’s anti-corruption bureau to kick off a preliminary probe into a case of alleged disproportionate assets of five cabinet members in former BJP chief minister Raghubar Das’s government.
The Jharkhand cabinet on Tuesday greenlit a proposal by the state’s anti-corruption bureau (ACB) to kick off a preliminary probe into a case of alleged disproportionate assets of five cabinet members in former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister Raghubar Das’s government.
The five under the scanner — Amar Bauri, Neelkanth Singh Munda, Neera Yadav, Randhir Singh and Louis Marandi — were part of the state cabinet between 2014 and 2019.
Marandi apart, the rest are members of the incumbent state assembly as well.
“The cabinet has approved the ACB’s proposal to initiate a preliminary inquiry after the agency completed the confidential verification,” said cabinet secretary Ajoy Singh.
On November 14 last year, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren’s government directed ACB to probe the case, on the back of a PIL filed before the Jharkhand high court in 2020.
Besides the five ministers and the departments they held, the petitioner, Pankaj Yadav, also made ACB, the income tax department and the chief secretary parties in the plea.
“In light of Yadav’s PIL, the state government sought the advocate general’s opinion. Based on this, the government directed ACB to begin its probe,” said Singh.