1,800 acres of tribal land grabbed by mafia: ED on Jharkhand scam
The federal agency has received several complaints of land grabbing and also identified proceeds of crime worth ₹3,000 crore
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing an alleged land scam in Jharkhand, in which chief minister Hemant Soren was arrested and later released this year, has found that 1,800 acres of unsaleable tribal land was grabbed by the mafia by changing the nature of the property through fabrication of records, people aware of the details said.
The federal agency has received several complaints of land grabbing and also identified proceeds of crime worth ₹3,000 crore, the people added.
The case pertains to alleged grabbing of prime land parcels designated as non-saleable under the Chota Nagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, a legislation which seeks to protect the land rights of tribal and marginalised communities, through fake deeds made using false identities and land records at circle offices and registrar of assurances (RoA) in Kolkata and circle offices in Jharkhand.
“After taking action, including the arrest of high-profile individuals like Soren, several bureaucrats and middlemen, we received more such complaints of land grabbing. During the probe, we found that 1,800 acres of land were dealt with in similar fashion by the mafia. Our team has estimated that the total proceeds of crime is ₹3,000 crore,” an ED officer said, seeking anonymity.
“We are verifying all the complaints and a further probe is underway,” the officer added.
At least 25 people, including Soren, have been arrested so far. The agency has claimed that land grabbers and their associates in revenue offices forged land records dating up to 1932.
The chief minister was arrested on January 31 and released on June 28. In its charge sheet against the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader in March, ED claimed that Soren himself illegally acquired 8.86-acre land (estimated to be worth ₹31 crore) in Ranchi, even as he dismissed the allegation.
During its searches last year, the federal agency recovered 11 trunks of voluminous property documents from the premises of an accused, Bhanu Pratap Prasad, along with 17 original registers.
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Earlier, the registration of landed properties in Bihar (when Jharkhand was a part of it) was carried out at RoA in Kolkata. This continued till 1991 after which the registration of properties in Bihar and present-day Jharkhand began taking place at concerned jurisdictional land registration offices.
“The accused manufactured back-dated deeds of the targeted landed properties from Kolkata and kept it in original registers at RoA. Then, they obtained certified copies of those deeds and then disposed of the properties in connivance with each other. They had fake stamps/seals through which they created these fake deeds,” a second ED officer said, also seeking anonymity.