Suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal gets bail in money laundering case

Suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal, who has been in judicial custody for the last 28 months in an alleged money laundering case, was granted bail by a Jharkhand court on Saturday.
The bail was granted to Singhal by a special Ranchi PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court, where her plea was heard under provisions of a law regarding prolonged judicial custody.
The court had earlier sought detailed information from the Superintendent of Birsa Munda Central Jail regarding the exact duration of Singhal’s incarceration and her judicial custody status.
Following this, the jail superintendent submitted a formal report to the court.
Pooja Singhal, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 11, 2022, had spent nearly two-and-a-half years in jail. Her counsel argued for her release under the revised legal framework, which permits bail for accused whose judicial custody equals or exceeds one-third of the maximum sentence in the case they face.
A 2000 batch IAS officer, Singhal, was arrested by the federal probe agency for alleged embezzlement of crores of MGNREGA funds in Jharkhand. The Enforcement Directorate had also conducted raids on several properties linked to Singhal in connection with the money laundering case.
The ED said it had seized over Rs 36 crore in cash linked to illegal mining operations during two separate investigations conducted by the agency.
Apart from Singhal and her businessman husband, a chartered accountant associated with the couple, along with several others, were raided by the ED as part of the money laundering probe.
Singhal was suspended by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) following her arrest.
In April this year, the Supreme Court rejected Singhal’s bail plea, stating that it would not interfere with the Jharkhand High Court order.
“You wait for some time for bail. This is not a normal matter but an extraordinary case. There is something seriously wrong in this case. We are not inclined to entertain the instant petition. We hope the trial will proceed expeditiously,” a bench of justices Sanjeev Khanna and Dipankar Datta had said.