KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, April 13: A team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday morning swooped over at a residential flat in Kadma belonging to the director, Social Welfare department of Jharkhand, Chhabi Ranjan.
The exercise of searching and surveying of Chhabi Ranjan’s flat located at Longiya Enclave near the landmark Milkit hotel was part of a widespread operation being carried out by the ED in connection with a land scam allegedly committed by the bureaucrat while he was posted as deputy commissioner of Ranchi.
The residential flat in question is in the name of Chhabi Ranjan’s wife Lovely, but it was under lock and key when the ED team reached there. After making queries from the people staying in the neighborhood, the ED team finally found out the whereabouts of the caretaker of the flat and succeeded to enter into the flat for the necessary inquiry.
The said caretaker identified as Monu resided in Adityapur and is said to be a distant relative of Chhabi Ranjan.
According to sources, Chhabi Ranjan’s father would stay alone in the flat for the past few months, but the flat was handed over to Monu for keeping it safe under the latter’s care. The ED left the residential flat in question after an hours-long search operation.
It is said that Chhabi Ranjan who is a 2011 batch IAS has an affinity for Jamshedpur as he had done his schooling at the Bistupur-based St Mary’s Hindi High School. This apart Chhabi Ranjan was posted as deputy commissioner of the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district long before he shot up in fame as a potential ‘important’ officer in the bureaucratic parlance of the Hemant Soren government.
