Babulal Marandi lobs ‘video bomb’, links Jharkhand CM's secretary with money laundering scam suspect

RANCHI: Opposition BJP on Sunday launched a fresh tirade against the Hemant Soren government by releasing a 47-second purported video of the chief minister’s principal secretary-cum-home secretary, Rajiv Arun Ekka, “dealing official files” sitting at the office of the money laundering scam suspect, Vishal Chaudhary.

The video also showed a woman standing next to Ekka and helping him with the files. The saffron party claimed that the woman is a personal staff of Chaudhary, who is under the radar of the enforcement directorate (ED) for money laundering.

Hours after the BJP charge, the state government transferred Ekka to the panchayati raj department though neither the administration nor the ruling JMM has reacted to the charges till the filing of this report.

Home secretary Ekka's phone also remained out of range. However, JMM's ally, Congress, gave a measured response with the state party president, Rajesh Thakur, saying, "We are yet to go through the contents of the video. We will give a statement once we see it and ascertained its veracity."

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, BJP leader and former CM, Babulal Marandi, demanded a CBI probe against Ekka and his removal from the post immediately. Marandi, who released the video to the media persons, also said a delegation of his party is scheduled to visit the Raj Bhavan to demand action against Ekka soon.

Last year, the ED raided Chaudhary's premises in connection with a case related to suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal, who is currently in jail and accused in the MNREGA scam and money laundering cases.

Marandi said, "In this video, the CM's principal secretary is handling the official files at the house of Vishal Chaudhary. The woman standing next to Ekka is an employee of Choudhary. You can imagine how powerful the middlemen and power brokers are in this regime They are running a proxy government."

On the veracity of the video, Marandi said everyone is free to get the footage examined by competent and expert authorities. "We are soon going to meet the governor and hand over a copy of the footage to demand a detailed inquiry. This video will also be handed over to the ED for their perusal. The Soren government must sack Ekka from his post without delay and an FIR be lodged against him," said Marandi, who also posted the video on social media.

Stating that two AK-47 rifles were recovered from the house of another power broker, Prem Prakash, during the ED raids in the past, Marandi said, "...the home secretary himself is caught on camera clearing official files in the office of ED suspect Vishal Choudhary. The CM must recommend a CBI probe now."