The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth over Rs. 3.36 Crore of the dreaded human trafficker of Jharkhand Panna Lal Mahto who has been in judicial custody after his arrest in July 2019.
A native of Khunti district, he is alleged to have amassed properties worth around Rs 100 crore through trafficking smuggling in the past 18 years.
The ED had recently secured his five days police remand to question him about illegal properties he raised through human trafficking. The ED is investigating the money laundering case against him who is accused to have amassed properties worth over Rs 100 Crore.
The ED said that Panna Lal Mahto purchased land properties as well as vehicles in his name as well as his wife Sunita. Besides, he had parked money in different bank accounts.
ED said that Panna Lal Mahto purchased different plots of land worth Rs 2.96 Crore in Ranchi and Khunti district. “So far, the ED has identified 12.77 acres of land which Pannalal purchased over the years. A total of nine plots have been attached,” an official of ED said.
These plots are situated at Argora in Ranchi besides Hutar and Fudi in Khunti district. For instance, ED attached 70 decimals of his land at Argora worth Rs 1.89 Crore.
ED attached 12 bank accounts opened in the name of Pannalal, his wife, relatives Hiramani Devi and Gopal Oraon, the NGO Birsa Bhagwan Tribal Welfare Society, and his company M/s Secureluck Consultancy Pvt. Ltd.
A total of Rs 17.71 Lakh amount was parked in these accounts which the ED attached. Besides, the ED attached his SUV worth Rs 22.39 Lakh.
Besides ED, the NIA is also investigating the cases against him. In Khunti, there are as many as 13 cases against him. Besides Khunti, Mahto is facing cases in Ranchi and Delhi. Other than Jharkhand, he developed networks in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. In Delhi, he used to operate an agency that he named Panna Lal Placement Agency. Politically well-connected he was arrested twice in 2006 and 2015 but he walked out of the jail. Mahto also enjoyed close connections with politicians, a fact that came to the fore in 2014 when the state police were carrying out raids to arrest the then minister and Congress MLA Yogendra Sao.
In the last 18 years, he allegedly trafficked not less than 10,000 girls.