Ranchi land scam: ED summons IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan for questioning

Ranchi, April 18 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Jharkhand IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan for questioning in connection with the Ranchi land scam case, an official said on Tuesday.

Ranjan, who is presently the Director in the Social Welfare Department, has been summoned to the Ranchi zonal office of the agency on April 21.

Ranjan was the Deputy Commissioner of Ranchi when the land deals were allegedly processed. During his tenure, apart from about 1.5 acres of army land, there was a scam of sale and purchase of many other plots using fake documents.

In the same case, Kolkata’s Additional Registrar of Assurance, Trideep Mishra, has also been summoned by the ED. Mishra has been called for questioning at the ED office in Ranchi on May 2.

On April 13, the agency had raided 21 locations across three states — Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal — including the premises of Ranjan and 18 others.

During the raids, the ED had also questioned Ranjan and scanned his cellphone. It was found that he had prepared for the possible action by the ED and had the answers ready to the questions to be asked in the case.

During the raids, the agency recovered hundreds of land deeds, papers, fake documents, fake seals and registry documents.

Seven persons have been arrested in this case so far, who are being interrogated by the ED. These include businessmen Pradeep Bagchi, Bhanu Pratap, Afsar Ali, Imtiaz Khan, Talha Khan, Fayaz Khan and Mohammad Saddam.

–IANS
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