LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, June 12: The Directorate of Enforcement (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 is 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 Army.
According to a press release, the 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. The 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, evidences 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.
The ED had shared evidences against Bhanu Pratap Prasad (an Employee of Land –Revenue Department) with the Jharkhand Government under section 66(2) of PMLA and on the basis of the same, Ranchi Police has registered an FIR against Bhanu Pratap Prasad under various sections of IPC. The ED has also shared the evidences of forged seals recovered from the residential premise of Faiyaz Khan, under PMLA.
The ED has also obtained orders from the Special PMLA Court for sending the original records of Registrar of Assurance, Kolkata & Land-Revenue Department of Ranchi to the Directorate of Forensic Science, Gandhinagar. Forensic Examination of these records proved the forgery in the records. Based on the evidences collected by the ED, the 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. In this case, Prosecution complaint was been filed by the ED today on 12.06.23.
Further investigation is in progress, the ED press communique added.
