Court extends date for framing charges against Pooja Singhal

RANCHI: The special PMLA court has fixed April 10 as the date for framing of charges against suspended IAS officer Pooja Singhal and two others in the MGNREGA scam and money laundering case.
The special PMLA court had earlier decided to frame the charges in the case on Wednesday. But Singhal’s advocates pleaded for time, saying they would prefer to file an appeal in the high court against the special PMLA court’s order, rejecting her discharge petition in the case.
Senior advocates Biswajit Mukherjee and Vikrant Sinha, while appearing for Singhal, stated that they were yet to receive the certified copy of the court’s order on her discharge petition. They said the order has not been uploaded on the court’s website due to technical glitch and it would not be proper to frame the charges under such circumstances. After hearing the petitioner, the court decided that charges against Singhal and other accused persons — retired executive engineer Sashi Prakash and Singhal’s husband chartered accountant Suman Kumar — would be framed on the next date.
Singhal gave a verbal undertaking before the court that she would be present before it on the given date.
Meanwhile, the court has framed charges against accused Ram Binod Sinha in the case.
The ED has filed charge-sheet against Singhal and others in the Rs 18 crore MGNREGA scam, which took place in Khunti district. The central agency carried out country-wide raids at the premises of Singhal and her associates in May 2022 and subsequently arrested her. She is out on interim bail at present.