SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, May 12: The special (ED) court today granted the ED four days more to grill suspended IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan, who has been evasive so far in telling the truth on how the multi-crore land scam happened when he was deputy commissioner of Ranchi.
Ranjan, a 2011 batch IAS officer, had been arrested by the ED on May 4 and quizzed for six days after the court sent him in the ED custody on May 6. He was Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi from July 15, 2020, to July 11, 2022.
The ED informed the court of Special judge Dinesh Rai that the investigation is on swing and every day, new facts are emerging. “Several information has been sought from various offices in light of new facts unearthed during investigation. The said information
requires to be confronted with Ranjan. The analysis of digital devices and other documents seized from his possession is also going on,” it said.
The ED told the court that Chhavi Ranjan’s custody was required to identify the other beneficiaries of the fraud of which he is a party with other key persons. “He has to be confronted with materials in hand during his statement as he is being evasive in his statement. Also, he is to identify the properties (immovable/movable) acquired from proceeds of crime by him. During the extraction of digital devices substantial material is gathered which need to be examined and further corroborated with Ranjan,” the ED said.
“Investigation has revealed that Chhavi Ranjan while working as the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi during 2020-21 to 2022 misused his official position and capacity of a public servant and extended undue benefits to several private parties for corresponding gain to himself which he has been concealing. He was the part of the illegal activities for which he had been arrested on May 4,” the ED said.
The ED said that the investigation has revealed that Afshar Ali, Pradip Bagchi and his accomplices prepared fake deed from the office of the Registrar of Assurances, Kolkata and in connivance with Chhavi Ranjan, power broker Prem Prakash and Amit Kumar Agarwal hatched a conspiracy for registering 4.55 acres of Army land in name of M/s Jagatbandhu Tea Estate Pvt. Ltd., a beneficial company of Amit Kumar Agarwal.
“Chhavi Ranjan assisted these persons to acquire the above property by misusing his official position and overlooking the records available with his office,” the agency added.
The ED said that Chhavi Ranjan knowingly directed the Circle officer to visit the office of Registrar of Assurances (Records), Kolkata and verify the original deeds for ascertaining the actual owner of the property. “Investigation has revealed that the original registers in the records of Registrar of assurances, Kolkata were already forged/tampered and falsified in favour of Pradeep Bagchi. Chhavi Ranjan also directed the Circle Officer to give a favourable report and also pressured the sub registrar to do the registry<” the central agency added.
“Afshar Ali, Saddam Hussain were also confronted with Chhavi Ranjan wherein Rajdeep Kumar and Circle Officer Manoj Kumar were also present. All these persons stated before Chhavi Ranjan that he had directed the Circle Officer to conduct a verification on the claim of Pradip Bagchi over property from the Registrar of Assurances, Kolkata,” the ED said.
According to the ED, Chhavi Ranjan also gave favourable reports and orders to facilitate one Bishnu Kumar Agarwal who has acquired non-saleable lands as well as other properties in which forgery and falsification of records have been committed by accused persons.
During investigation, similar forgery in registration of another property having area about 7.16 acres in Hehal, Ranchi surfaced. “On the basis of a fake deed the above land was mutated in the name of one dummy owner named Binod Singh. This property was immediately sold to Ravi Singh Bhatia and Shyam Singh in a deceitful manner. Chhavi Ranjan facilitated these persons in not only giving favourable orders for transferring land in their name but also helped them in taking possession of the property and building boundary walls on it,” the ED told the court.
The ED further said that Chhavi Ranjan as DC and District Magistrate issued directions to the Police for facilitating these persons in erecting boundary walls at the above site. Several police personnel were deployed to assist these persons in taking possession and doing boundary wall, it added.
