Special PMLA court reserves order on suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal's discharge plea

RANCHI: The Special PMLA court on Saturday reserved its order on the discharge petition filed by suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal in connection with the MGNREGA scam in Khunti district and money laundering.The Directorate of Enforcement (ED), which is probing the case, listed Singhal and others as accused in the case. Singhal, who was arrested by the ED in May 2022, is out on interim bail.During the argument on Thursday, Singhal's advocates Biswajit Mukherjee and Vikrant Sinha said Singhal was not made an accused in 16 FIRs registered by the state police in the MGNREGA scam. They said only a few of the FIRs were related to her tenure as the deputy commissioner of Khunti.The special prosecutor of ED, Atish Kumar, countered the petitioner by claiming that different modus operandi was used by Singhal to launder the proceeds of crime obtained from the MGNREGA scam.The Special PMLA court has fixed April 3 for delivering judgement on the discharge petition of Pooja Singhal.