Scam in land deal: A special PMLA court in Ranchi on Saturday sent Jharkhand IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, arrested in connection with its probe into alleged “illegal” land deals, to six-day custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). According to an official, the ED had sought 10-day custody of the former Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi for questioning.
He was arrested on Thursday late night (May 4) after being questioned for nearly 10 hours and taken into ED custody. A day later the IAS officer was sent to Birsa Munda Central Jail.
What did the lawyer of the IAS officer say?
Meanwhile, Ranjan’s lawyer Abhishek Krishna Gupta said the court remanded the 2011 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre to six days’ ED custody and he would be produced again on May 12.
The investigating officer of the case recorded Ranjan’s statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Earlier on April 24, the ED had questioned him for nearly 10 hours in connection with its money laundering probe in alleged illegal land deals.
The agency had also briefly questioned Ranjan on April 13, when searches were carried out at his and some other premises in Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. The ED had earlier arrested seven people, including a Jharkhand government official, following raids.
More than a dozen land deals are under investigation
The central agency is probing over a dozen land deals, one of which pertains to defense land, in which a group of mafias, middlemen and bureaucrats allegedly “colluded” in forging papers and documents since as early as 1932. It was
Sources had said that under this fraud, the lands of the poor and Dalits were grabbed. This is the second case in which the Jharkhand cadre IAS officer has come under the scanner of the ED.
Read also: Land deal scam: ED arrests Jharkhand IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan after day-long questioning
Last year, the central agency had arrested 2000 batch IAS officer Pooja Singhal in Khunti in a money laundering case involving alleged embezzlement of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and other dubious financial transactions.
(With PTI inputs)