ED charges filed in Jharkhand land scam money laundering case, property worth 74.39 Cr to be attached

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached two plots worth Rs. 74.39 crore (commercial value) in the Ranchi scam case.

One plot measuring 4.55 acres at Bariat, Ranchi, with a commercial value of Rs 41.51 crore and another measuring 7.16 acres at Bajra, Ranchi, with a commercial value of Rs 32.87 crore.These lands were fraudulently mutated in favor of the land mafias in collaboration with the land office officials. The first plot of land was previously in the name of the army.

According to a press release,the ED has initiated a money laundering investigation based on an FIR registered by the Bariatu Police Station, Ranchi under various sections of the IPC against Pradip Bagchi on a complaint by the Ranchi Municipal Corporation. Investigation revealed that there is a land mafia racket active in Jharkhand which they use to forge older records in Kolkata & Ranchi. Subsequently, on the basis of falsified land records, these plots of land are sold to other persons.

ED conducted 41 searches and 5 surveys in this matter and incriminating evidence like forged seals of land office, forged land deeds, records of distribution of proceeds of crime between them, photographs of forgeries, evidence of giving bribes to government officials. etc. were confiscated. In this case, 10 namely Pradip Bagchi, Afshar Ali (RIMS employee), Saddaam Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmed, Talha Khan, Faiyaaz Khan, Bhanu Pratap Prasad, Chhavi Ranjan (ex DC Ranchi), Dilip Kumar Ghosh and Amit Kumar Agarwal were accused. they were arrested and all are in judicial custody.

ED shared evidence against Bhanu Pratap Prasad (employee of Land Office - Revenue Department) with Jharkhand Government under Section 66(2) of PMLA and based on the same, Ranchi Police registered an FIR against Bhanu Pratap Prasad under various sections of IPC. ED also shared evidence of forged seals recovered from Faiyaz Khan's residential property under PMLA.

The ED also received orders from the PMLA Special Court to send the original records of the Registrar of Credence, Kolkata & Land-Revenue Department of Ranchi to the Directorate of Forensic Sciences, Gandhinagar. Forensic examination of these records proved falsification of the records.

Based on the evidence collected by ED, Registrar of Assurance, Kolkata lodged an FIR at Hare Street Police Station, Kolkata under Sections 120B, 465, 467,468 and 471 IPC and the same was merged for comprehensive investigation in this case. In this case complaint was filed with ED on 12.06.23.

Further investigation is underway, the ED press release added.