E-Paper
Ranchi land scam: ED attaches three plots owned by arrested bizman
The ED had arrested Agrawal in connection with the case on July 19 for alleged fraudulent sale of a one-acre plot in the upscale Cheshire Home Road area in Ranchi. He has been in judicial custody ever since.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached three land parcels worth ₹161.64 crore in Ranchi owned by noted businessman Bishnu Agrawal as part of its probe into the alleged land scam in Jharkhand, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The ED had arrested Agrawal in connection with the case on July 19 for alleged fraudulent sale of a one-acre plot in the upscale Cheshire Home Road area in Ranchi. He has been in judicial custody ever since.
The three land parcels are situated at Cheshire Home Road, Pugru, and Siramtoli in the state capital.
In addition to the Cheshire Home Road property and a 9.3-acre plot at Namkum, Agrawal, in connivance with deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan and others, also bought a 5.83-acre plot in Ranchi, “which has been in the possession of the Indian Defence establishment since 1949”, according to the ED.
“These land parcels have been mutated fraudulently in favour of land mafias in connivance with the officers of the land revenue department. ED initiated an investigation into three land scam cases based on multiple FIRs registered by the Jharkhand Police and West Bengal Police against Pradip Bagchi, Bishnu Kumar Agarwal, Bhanu Pratap Prasad, and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC),” an official said.
“ED’s investigation revealed that a huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia is ongoing in Jharkhand. These criminal elements forge the legacy records in Kolkata and Ranchi. It was also revealed that ownership records of land have been forged by unscrupulous government officers to extend favours to the said land mafia. Subsequently, based on forged land records, such land parcels are sold to other persons,” the official added.
The ED had earlier carried out 41 searches and five surveys in this matter, and various incriminating pieces of evidence, such as forged seals of the land revenue department, land deeds, records of the distribution of proceeds of crime, photographs of forgery, and evidence of giving bribes to government officials, were seized.
Before the action against Bishnu Agrawal, the ED had provisionally attached three land parcels worth ₹74.39 crore in another land scam case. With the current attachment, the total attachment in land scam cases reached ₹236 crore.
To date, 14 people have been arrested in connection with the land scam case and are presently in judicial custody.
“Earlier, a prosecution complaint equivalent to a charge sheet was filed on June 12, 2023, while another prosecution complaint was filed by ED in the land scam case on Friday. Further investigation is in progress,” an official said.
