V NARADA
Ranchi, March 31: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has decided to increase the manpower of its Ranchi zonal office in the wake of a large number of important cases investigated by this unit.
Sources familiar with the development confided that as many as five to six additional number of officials will be posted in Ranchi to expedite the investigation.
Joint director Kapil Raj who has been supervising a number of major corruption cases like Delhi liquor scam, cattle and coal smuggling in Bengal and many others also heads the Ranchi zone.
The Ranchi zone has two deputy directors namely Khitesh Gupta and Rishikesh Pandey besides a couple of assistant directors and investigators who are responsible for investigation and prosecution.
In the last couple of years, the Ranchi zone has registered a number of cases of corruption. There are several cases involving top politicians and bureaucrats. This includes Khunti district MNREGA scam where the agency arrested and charge-sheeted IAS officer Pooja Singhal.
The stone mining scam worth Rs 1000 crore is another big-ticket scam where the ED charge-sheeted Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren’s MLA representative Pankaj Mishra, power broker Prem Prakash and a notorious criminal Bacchu Yadav. Another notorious criminal Dahu Yadav and his brother Sunil Yadav are absconding in this case and their arrest has really become a headache for the agency. In this case, the ED also questioned Jharkhand chief minister and his media advisor Abhishek Prasad. The ED, in the chargesheet, has made certain revelations about the chief minister. This is one of the most complicated cases involving a bunch of FIRs which the ED has tagged in the main case. This has seen an interesting court battle between the state government/private persons and the ED, from the PMLA court to the Supreme Court.
On February 23, the ED arrested the Jharkhand government’s chief engineer Virendra Ram in a corruption case over Rs 100 Crore. Several politicians and bureaucrats are under the scanner of the agency. The ED has to file the chargesheet in 60 days.
The ED is also investigating the cash for PIL case involving Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal and Jharkhand High Court advocate Rajiv Kumar. The Jharkhand Congress MLAs’ cash case is also under investigation in which the ED had quizzed four Congress MLAs. However, the Jharkhand High Court quashed the zero FIR lodged by the Jharkhand police which was the main base of the ED’s investigation. But the agency is also investigating another FIR having similar allegations.
Last year, the ED had carried out a series of raids against many power brokers and lobbyists, including Vishal Choudhary, Nishit Keshri besides others. In one case a number of incriminating documents and evidence were recovered from the possession of Vishal Choudhary who is closely linked to IAS Rajeev Arun Ekka. Recently, the ED questioned Rajiv Arun Ekka twice. Besides, the ED has initiated investigation into the Jharkhand sports scam.
