SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, June 30: The Kolkata Registrar of Assurance today lodged an FIR against unknown persons after as many as 36 land deeds sent by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for examination were found to be forged.
The deeds, according to ED sources, were linked to land scamsters, who are cooling their heels in the Birsa Munda Central jail.
The Kolkata Registrar had formed a four-member committee to examine the genuineness of the 36 land deeds. The committee, after scrutiny found the all the documents as forged, which prompted the registrar to lodge an FIR with the Kolkata police.
Notably, the ED has arrested ex-Ranchi DC Chhavi Ranjan, power broker Prem Prakash and Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal among others in the multi-crore land scam in Ranchi.
The ED has also interrogated businessman Vishnu Agarwal and senior Jharkhand high court advocate Himanshu Mehta in the land scam.
Notably, the ED investigation has proved that non-saleable government land, Army land and even private lands have been acquired by a group of persons forging the records and creating fraudulent documents and by tampering the records available at the concerned land record Authorities.
The ED has stated that a gang of frauds is active in Ranchi, which has expertise of manufacturing fake documents, falsifying and forging original documents.
ED may book Birsa Munda jail superintendent
Meanwhile, the ED continued to question Birsa Munda Central Jail Superintendent Hamid Akhtar and Jailor Nashim Khan at its regional office here.
However, according to sources, Akhtar is not cooperating with the probe agency and giving misleading information.
The probe agency wants to know how could the jail superintendent assisted the ED accused in the prison by violating jail regulations and not provide adequate assistance to the probe agency in its investigation.
The probe agency is expected to get answer from the jail superintendent about the circumstances that led to one of its accused and power broker Prem Prakash, meeting another accused and suspended IAS officer, Chhavi Ranjan, in the jail.
“What we want from the jail superintendent to hand over us the genuine CCTV footage under due process of law and help to carry forward our investigation. But he is not cooperating,” divulged an ED source.
