The Enforcement Directorate (ED) recovered Rs 1.25 crore in cash, Rs 3.56 crore in bank accounts, and immovable assets worth Rs 266 crore from a total of 51 raids and nine surveys. The Enforcement Directorate has been tightening its screw in the Jharkhand land scam case, in which Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leaders are involved. Last week, the ED seized more assets and also made new arrests in the case. Hemant Soren, the former Jharkhand CM, is already behind bars in the case. Including Soren, the probe agency has arrested IAS Chhavi Ranjan, businessman Amit Agarwal, and 22 people in this case.
Four people including JMM leader Antu Tirkey and real estate businessman Vipin Singh were arrested by the ED on Wednesday. A charge sheet has filed against Hemant Soren and others by ED on March 30, with regard to land scam case seeking to seize the 8.86-acre land in question which, ED claims, was acquired by forgery.
A money laundering investigation in the land scam case had been initiated by the probe agency based on multiple FIRs registered by Jharkhand Police against several persons, including government officials. The ED investigation into the case has revealed the involvement of an active land mafia racket in Jharkhand that used to forge land records in Ranchi.
It is also revealed that ownership records of lands have also been forged to extend favors to the said land mafia. The ED had said in a statement that Prasad, the prime accused in the case, was the custodian of government records alleged to have “misused” his official position by providing support to several people, including Soren, in their deeds linked to illegal occupation, acquisition, and possession of proceeds of crime in the form of landed properties. “A racket of land mafia is active in Jharkhand, which used to forge the land records in Ranchi,” it claimed.
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