The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a Prosecution Complaint (PC) (equivalent to a chargesheet) against the accused in the land scam related to the purchase and sale of other plots of Ranchi, including army-occupied land, with the help of fake documents. The charge sheet has been filed against 10 persons which includes Ranchi former Deputy Commissioner Chhavi Ranjan among others.
The ED has provisionally attached two land parcels worth Rs. 74.39 Crore (Commercial Value) in Ranchi land scam case. One land parcel having area 4.55 acres in Bariatu , Ranchi ,with commercial value of Rs 41.51 Crore and another one having area 7.16 acres in Bajra , Ranchi, with commercial value of Rs 32.87 Crore.
These land parcels have been mutated fraudulently in favour of land mafias in connivance with the officers of Land Revenue Department. The first land parcel was earlier in the name of the Army. ED had initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered by the Bariatu Police Station, Ranchi under various sections of IPC against Pradip Bagchi based on a complaint of Ranchi Municipal Corporation. Investigation revealed that a racket of land mafia is active in Jharkhand who use to forge the legacy records in Kolkata & Ranchi. Subsequently, on the basis of forged land records, such land parcels are sold to other persons.
ED had carried out 41 searches & 5 surveys in this matter and incriminating evidences like forged seals of land revenue department, forged land deeds, records of distribution of Proceeds of Crime among them, photographs doing forgery, evidence of giving bribe to Government officials etc were seized.
In this case, 10 accused namely Pradip Bagchi, Afshar Ali ( Employee of RIMS) , Saddaam Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmed, Talha Khan, Faiyaaz Khan, Bhanu Pratap Prasad , Chhavi Ranjan ( Ex DC Ranchi) , Dilip Kumar Ghosh and Amit Kumar Agarwal have been arrested and all of them are in Judicial custody. ED had shared evidences against Bhanu Pratap Prasad (an Employee of Land – Revenue Department) with Jharkhand Government under section 66(2) of PMLA and on the basis of the same, Ranchi Police has registered FIR against Bhanu Pratap Prasad under various sections of IPC.
ED has also shared the evidence of forged seals recovered from the residential premise of Faiyaz Khan, under PMLA. ED has also obtained orders from Special PMLA Court for sending the original records of Registrar of Assurance, Kolkata & Land-Revenue Department of Ranchi to Directorate of Forensic Science, Gandhinagar. Forensic Examination of these records proved the forgery in the records.
Based on the evidence collected by ED, Registrar of Assurance, Kolkata filed an FIR in Hare Street Police Station, Kolkata under section 120B, 465, 467,468 and 471 of IPC and the same has been merged in this case for comprehensive investigation.
As many as 10 persons are named in the PC. In the PC, the probe agency has given complete information about many pieces of evidence and the facts which have come to light against the accused in the present investigation. With this development, the ED paved the path for the court to take cognizance in the matter.
